How Do You Trade Properly?

[Kaida]

So, I've been to Elitetradingtool, and I try to make sense of the systems trading map, but I don't get it. If you could please explain even the basic principals of finding good trade routes, that would be great.

[Agony_Aunt]

There is a logic to it that doesn't require you to use trading tools (although you can if you want, it just removes the thinking element from trading).

So it depends what you want.

If you use the trading tools, most of them you just select where you are and ask it to find you a good route. It then tells you what to buy and where and where to sell it. If you use eddb.io you can select loop route finder which will give you two way routes for example.

The downside to using trading tools is that other people are also using them, and good routes tend to get reduced profits quickly.

If you really want max profits, you have to engage your brain a little and get out of the popular systems. Find a nice pair of systems somewhere remote that compliment each other, each supplying what the other needs.

You can use infographics like these:

http://i.imgur.com/ang1e0I.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vaP8pP8.jpg

Can't find the one i wanted though, there was a really cool one that explained it very well.

[Ser Cartoon of House Head]

Originally posted by Epicburst:

So, I've been to Elitetradingtool, and I try to make sense of the systems trading map, but I don't get it. If you could please explain even the basic principals of finding good trade routes, that would be great.

With Elite trading tool, click on find trade. set what system you are in, click on 60ly the largest search distance and size of ship you use.

It will search in a 60ly radius of where you are and list the trade routes close by by profit per unit. If nothing shows up, open your map in game and pick random stars and input their name into the trading tool until you find a route with more than 3000 credits per unit. Go to the station and fill your cargo with what the tool tells you, take it to where it tells you, sell it all for profit, then stock up on what it tells you to take back and repeat.

Be warned sometimes it shows outdated or false information (some people purposely put in misleading information to protect their trade routes, but that is rare, works great for the most part), so may take a little to find a good route, but it is how I got my python with 3 days of trading from ASP to python.

[Torg73]

The way I started trading using the Elite trading tool first you need to go to Trade Calculator and type in your current location (system and station), type the cargo capacity of your ship and your current credit cash you have then select the range you what to travel and your ship size landing pad size then hit the calculate button.

From there you should get a list of systems (left is your system and on the right diffrent systems/station you can sell the cargo to and how much profit you could get(try to pick a system/station thats no more then a few day's as the prices will drop as more people sell the items at the station).

After that hit the far right arrow buttion to see what you need to buy and sell next for more profit.

At if your starting off and what to make fast easy money you could look at the bulltion board for missions then when you maded the credits buy a bigger ship with a bigger cargo hold as then you will be making more profit per run (atm am making about 1.4 - 1.6 mill per run in my conda)

[Sapyx]

At a very basic level, trade is "comon sense", in that most planets produce things, and most planets have things they require. Earth-like planets are almost always agricultural: they produce "natural" foodstuff such as fruit & veg. They demand "farming stuff": agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizer (biowaste). Mining colonies (called "extraction" in this game) produce minerals, and demand both basic survival materials (eg. food) plus "mining stuff": mining machinery etc. "Refinery" planets require food and minerals, and produce refined metals. "Industrial" planets require food and metals, and produce "heavy machinery". "High Tech" planets require food and certain metals and machinery, and produce advanced technological widgets of all kinds. "Tourism" and "Service" planets produce nothing but biowaste and demand luxuries of various kinds (expensive foodstuffs, legal drugs and certain techno-widgets).

Each trade commodity gives an outline of which kinds of planets produce it, and which kinds consume it. Your aim is to buy things from where they are produced (and therefore likely to be cheap and abundant) and take them to places where they are likely to be in high demand.

So, which goods to take? That depends to a small degree on how much spare cash you've got and how much space you've got in your hold.

If you're extremely low on available cash and/or have a huge cargo hold you need to fill, you want to maximize your percentage return on investment. The cheapest items are usually the best for this: biowaste, algae, scrap, that sort of thing. You can easily make a 500% profit or more on such things, turning your measly few hundred credits into a few thousand credits in a single trip.

"Normal" trading, on the other hand, is more interested in sheer profit per item: the "credits per ton" figure. This is usually the best for the most expensive items the planet produces: tea, tobacco, palladium, resonators, land enrichment, that sort of thing. Your profit ratio is usually pretty lousy on such comodities - something like 10% is considered "good" - but 10 percent of a 5,000-credit item is still more than 500% of a 20-credit item.

The best profits to be made from ordinary trading are down in Imperial space, but they're not for the faint of heart nor the fiscally challenged: taking Imperial Slaves to the mining colonies, then taking refined palladium back. Such trade items can, if you're lucky and/or have good route planning, net you a masive 2000 to 3000 credits per ton - hence all the stories you might see on the forums about people making Cr2 million an hour on their trade routes.

[simonmd]

With http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/ you dont need the map, simply select 'trade calculator' and select the system and station youre at, then input the various items on the right about your budget, ship size etc. and you will be given a list of the best trades from that station. If you find a really lucrative route, you can simply press 'reverse route' and you can find the best item to return with.