How do you actually make money trading?

[Valen]

I bought a trader and after doing a few trades for middling profit I can't find anything that actually gives me a profit

[Wraith]

yes actually you get alot.

with a discount/commission network going as well as all the other modifiers like supply and demand as well as reputation bonus

You can easily buy something for way less and then sell it for way more.

[Valen]

I'm just starting I don't have all of that unlocked

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Valen:

I'm just starting I don't have all of that unlocked

that the best time to get started
Getting a commision/discount is as easy as finding a dataleak on a station your trading with

the commision and discount usually lasts for hours as well so your network start really growing
Then you can hack a station for a permanent discount if you really want to metagame

Supply and demand discount are also constantly there.
A station with tons of E cell will sell those E cell for way less as their have a supply discount

[Valen]

Do you constantly have to hunt for trade deals? I'm just in map looking for stations to buy/sell from and literally none of them are at a profit. I don't understand. How are trade materials selling for more than the finished product? What economy works that way?

[db48x]

They’re not. Can you give us a specific example of the prices you’re seeing?

[Valen]

I'm at a wharf. They'll buy antimatter converters for 360 and engine parts for 195. The engine parts factory sells engine parts for 198 and the antimatter factory sells the converters for 367.

[db48x]

Ah, ok. So the way it works in this game is that each station prices each ware based on a very simple rule. This rule is not particularly realistic; it's not what you would use if you owned the station. But because all the stations use this rule, it lets the game simulate the effects of a huge economy without actually simulating the huge economy.

Basically, each ware has a fixed minimum and maximum price. Each station picks a buy or sell price between those two numbers based on how full the storage is. If a station has room for 100 widgets, and it has 10, then its price is the high price − 10% * price swing. If it has 90 widgets, then its price is the high price − 90% * price swing.

Each time a producing station produces some new product, its price will drop slightly, and a trader will come along and carry those goods away to someone who has a slightly higher price. Once they arrive, their purchase price will drop slightly (because their storage is now fuller), and no trades will be possible until their stock goes down or the price drops even further.

When the X4 economy is humming, the prices will hover somewhere in the middle of the range. At the start of the game most factions have supply problems and cannot get enough wares to their warfs and shipyards to build all the ships that they want. Not every ware is equally affected by these shortages; figuring out which are is part of the game. Trading these wares can make you a lot of money.

But by the mid game most of your money will come from producing those wares rather than trading them. The owner of the station that constructs them earns a much higher percentage off of every trade. They are purchasing cheap goods to turn into expensive goods, while the trader only earns the difference between the sale and purchase prices.

[Wraith]

here a screenshot for comparison.

This isn't even one of the best trade deal I have but it shows how profitable trading can be.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279288579

Here I got a -26 percent off weapon components from the station having high supply of weapon component
-6 from high supply
-12 from prized investor (rep bonus)
-8 from hacked discount
I didn't even have a normal scan discount/commision yet so it could be even better


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279288687

Here how much I got from one sell
with the station having high demand for weapon component exploding the amount of cash I get

I earned 143,967 credit just from one complete trade transactions.

[ayrtep]

A good satellite network is the best way to find favourable trades.