What wares to auto trade

[Dovahkiin]

how do you decider what wares to autotrade? do you add all of them? do you just add the high demand ones? or do you go in an lock and profit on each one and pick ? or something else

[Neccarus]

Engine parts and hull parts would be a good place to start.

[Papasaurus Rex]

I set it up depending on area my ship is gonna be trading in and based on the needs I see. The filters give you a pretty good idea as to what is low priced and where to sell at a high price. I zoom out and have a look then send em out

[SpankyMcFlych]

Use the trade filters to see what your universe has demand for. In mine the only thing that has more then 3 digit demand is ice and smart chips. Alas smart chips don't have enough production to supply that demand so I'm investing in stations instead of ships. At the start engine parts were in short supply but that seemed to correct itself and now I can't trade in that product anymore. The L class traders are basically worthless for me since the economy is so stagnant.

The trade filters can be found in the map, upper right. Click on filters, then trade filters. Then select a ware you want to see on the map. Zoom out and you can mouse over the bought wares and see how much the largest order is, and sold wares to see how much the largest supply is.

[Coffeepot]

Auto trading is garbage if you don't set it up with strict parameters, since the traders seek highest % profit you can often see them filling a buy order out on the edge of space that has a higher % profit but low total profit, I am not sure how the AI factors in time it takes to complete a trade either but it doesn't look like that matters to them.

[Dovahkiin]

Originally posted by SpankyMcFlych:

Use the trade filters to see what your universe has demand for. In mine the only thing that has more then 3 digit demand is ice and smart chips. Alas smart chips don't have enough production to supply that demand so I'm investing in stations instead of ships. At the start engine parts were in short supply but that seemed to correct itself and now I can't trade in that product anymore. The L class traders are basically worthless for me since the economy is so stagnant.

The trade filters can be found in the map, upper right. Click on filters, then trade filters. Then select a ware you want to see on the map. Zoom out and you can mouse over the bought wares and see how much the largest order is, and sold wares to see how much the largest supply is.

I think the smart chip shortage affects everything else ship related. Several shipyards in my game were at stand still because of it, and were full storage for everything else. I have 5 chip production module on mine and I can't stock them fast enough. Other stuff starting to pick up

[Dovahkiin]

Originally posted by Clunge plunger minge mangler:

Auto trading is garbage if you don't set it up with strict parameters, since the traders seek highest % profit you can often see them filling a buy order out on the edge of space that has a higher % profit but low total profit, I am not sure how the AI factors in time it takes to complete a trade either but it doesn't look like that matters to them.

Im wondering about if they factor distance into the equation too. Makes me wonder if I need to bother finding a good location or just produce every at one station. Maybe just be close to asteroids for the raw resources and not worry about the rest

[Gregorovitch]

So far as I can see so far the economy works on three levels:

1. Base raw materials (ore, silicon, water)
2. Day to day goods (food, meds abd stuff)
3. Things the shipyards, warfs and repair shops consume in large quantities

You miners handle the raw materials

On day to day goods all stations buy them but they don't buy a lot at once. These things are no good for autotrading becasue as far as I can see an auto-trader does only one deal at a time. Buy 50 Microships here, sell it there, buy 120 medical supplies here, sell them there and so on. Buying 200 wheat and delivering to a medecine factory does not butter many parsnips.

However Distribute Wares works differntly. With this command a trader will load up with a full load of a ware like food rations and go round all the stations selling it off in small parcels as demanded. Then find another full load. More sales for less distance travelled than an auto-trader. Therefore this command is best for this type of product I think. Importantly you only need two star pilots for this.

Auto-trade is best used for servicing stations and shipyards that have a very high demand for a specific product(s) that cost a reasonable amount per unit per / cargo space multiplier.

For stuff consumed by the shipyards etc in vast qualtities there are two types of ware: those that are made in sufficient qualtities in the economy and those that are not. For those that are not, that then is your queue to build a station to produce that ware for them. Profitsss. For those that are then that is your queue to set up an auto-trader to deal in that specific ware.

My three most profitable auto-traders (I think) are dealing only in engine parts from a number of engine part factories to a specific warf. They get 200k Cr per load and I think about 40k of that is profit and they trek efficiently and reliably between them day in day out.

So this is to say I think the idea of the "fire and forget" auto-trader that deals in anything and everything is not necessarily the best way to do it. Setting up traders to work in a specific way for specific products in a specific area is better. Study the map with the trade overlay and spot the opportunities, I say. They are there.

[Minion of Speed]

How did you find out about distribute wares? That sounds ideal for large traders.

[Dovahkiin]

i had thought distribute wares was something within your own stations, not buying and selling. but maybe im wrong. However, thanks for the info Greg! very helpful.