Can you not make money trading?

[HashSlingingSlasher]

I look for decent trading and all I see is mostly you can make about 40 dollars more per trade, the trade menu is really weird as well. Do you have to set up sat's around every dock or just one per sector? I want to try trading but it just doesn't seem like it's very profitable.

[YouTube.com/StoneLegion]

Sats, advance sats and later on for 10 mil credits you can unlock factions trade info 100%.

It's actually one most profitable methods. Sure 40 per item right? You can make 100k+ for like a medium cargo in profit. Best to filter something via right click or just filter menu and follow it, But normally I wait a while to establish some sats for trades.

Maybe near all wharfs and shipyard look for hull plate factories as their almost always in need.

[aY227]

Originally posted by HashSlingingSlasher:

I want to try trading but it just doesn't seem like it's very profitable.

xD
Pity I dont have some screenshots on this PC.

Satellite gathers info from it's cover area - bit more I think.
General knowledge of what-goes-where can do wonders.
Start from shipyard/wharf (not a bad idea to scan it to ~50% to see warehouse levels). Check what it needs (it will almost always be hull parts + various tier 3 stuff like weapon components) and follow that wares production chain identifying shortages.

Usually refined metals / hull parts are a good way to start.
There are also some funny places in galaxy, like ZYA and it's weird split (hehe) with resources sectors and production sectors.

[trooperrob]

The economy start in a constipated state.

Start with miners, then you don't have to worry about floats for buying stuff.

There will be some shortages but you need to identify them individually.
Hull parts may be short, but it might not be a hull part problem, but a problem with one of the raw materials for building hull parts....

as ay227 said.
Scan the shipyard to see stock levels, but then follow the chain down.

If one sector is bad try another sector /race. - unless you are role playing it is good to make more friends anyway.

something short in one area may be plentiful elsewhere.

I think fill shortages or distribute wares may work, but i find the best way to avoid micromanaging traders is having them assigned to stations.

[Gibbo]

Trading only really shines when you have a big station producing enough wares to start several wars. A bit redundant. You can set up basic routes. But it isn't like X3 where you could go mad sadly. It might be one day?

Miners are what makes you credits. A couple of M clas sector miners mining silicon will earn you around 120,000 every 6 minutes and it will increase rep and because they are M miners they will not flood the sector and will only be stopped by Khaak unless they are in Terran space namely Oort cloud. They can also use highways which could be handy.

[Drunio]

Its hard, but it can be done.

Certain factions even need assistance with trading as they simply don't have enough ships or lose them frequently. The ZYA for example will lose countless trade ships while trying to go through Xenon Space.

Faction war missions to build stations essentially requires trading if you want the station to be built anytime soon and thats some great $ as well as helping with their security.

Trading by itself without creating the ware CAN be good money if someone needs a ware and someone else has lots of it. Scan shipyards to see what materials they need or just go to build a ship and see what resource they are lacking to build it.

[trooperrob]

It can be, but usually later game, when you are feeding split hull parts, or Boron Water.
It is a lot of micromanagement initially.
Sure, if you set up a water factory, then a trading station in boron space, presumably repeat order to move the ware then trader selling, but early game having to look for each trade is tedious. I prefer fire and forget, periodically looking at a station to see if it needs more miners / traders or has exhausted the area.

[Venerable_Sin]

You are experiencing the early mechanics of the game. You will not find decent trading until you discover enough stations that have stock in the items you are looking to trade. When your ship fly's by a station it obtains that stations trade information for a short time. Putting a cheap satellite near a station that produces or always has the items you are looking to buy and sell will give you up to date buy/sell information when using your trade filters. You will need to clear the "fog of war" around a station in order to see it's latest trade information. You can do that by placing satellites or having a designated ship/ships going around the system or sitting near stations collecting trade information. You can also pay 10 mil to avoid this hassle for each specific faction and hack terminals for better prices or jettison station wares.

The price of an item a station has depends on how much stock the station has on hand for that item. The more stock a station has, the lower the price, the lower the stock the higher the price. The more stations you find the more likely you will find a station that has a full inventory of stock or a low inventory of stock at any given time.

You will have to find your suppliers and then you will have to find your buyers. In this way you will become a very successful trader. If you are looking to make a lot of profit remember to invest in passive incomes. Quickest early game passive incomes are auto miners and auto traders.