Newcomer / Intro How do you buy low/sell high?

[maziou]

I'd like to break into trading, but can't figure out what it is I need to do, to determine which wares to trade. Everything online says to buy low and sell high (no kidding), but doesn't explain how you can do that.

1. How do I know which wares are worth buying, and where I should go to sell them?
2. Is there an online guide or video that doesn't just go into "what" you need to do, but also "how" to do it?
3. What about the companion app for mobile devices? Does this provide any useful info for trading on the market? I see it has a market screen, but it only shows the market of the station I am docked at. Will it also show markets at other stations, if I have dormant ships docked at those other stations?
4. I've heard there are online webpages where people can contribute trade data; but I also hear a lot of the data is outdated or blatantly false. Is there a reliable source of trade data?
5. Really, I just want to make some profit. Is trading not the best way to go about that?

Thanks for any info

 

[Carradin]

Once you've visited a few stations in different systems, you'll start to see trade data displayed for the various goods in the commodity market. To the right side of the main commodity screen, you can see where a good is exported to or imported from, though it only lists systems you have visited. Then you simply pick a selection of goods that are exported, take them to the systems where they are listed as 'exported to', and sell them there. That's the easiest and most basic way of doing it, but not the most profitable.

For greater profit, you usually need to go on longer treks to sell. The game usually won't tell you these traderoutes straight up due to the longer distances, so that means you'll need to keep note of places which buy certain goods at a particularly high price (compare it to the galactic average, if it's more than 200 over the average, it's a decent bet. But it can go well over that, and the higher the better). Ideally, you'll want a return route where the other staton offers something you can sell for a similar profit on the way back. To make it easier to find the longer and more profitable routes, you can use tools such as Slopey's or http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/ - it can save you a lot of the flying around and writing down potential candidates.

Finally, you can try to do rare trading, which you can read more about Here.

 

[maziou]

Cool; thanks for the info

 

[InfiniteGremlins]

Note that the galactic average listed in the market can be a helpful guide; low prices are usually below the listed average. Usually.

 

[Faerie]

The basic rule is to buy things from producers & sell them to consumers. Probably the best example of this is to buy food in agricultural systems & sell it to industrial systems who don't produce it.
Minerals produced in extraction systems are sold to refineries, & the metals that are made in refineries are sold to industrials who produce technology, which in turn is sold to agriculturals.

In practice it's a little more complicated than that, but I'm sure you can see the principle ?
Pay attention to prices in systems you visit, (so you'll know a bargain when you see one) & try to find an area of space that has a selection of different economy types, so's you can easily source commodities & sell them in the appropriate systems.

 

[Phaser]

In the commodities UI, pay attention to how much a station is selling goods for(the sell tab), and the price listed in the galactic average tab(far right tab). Basically, the galactic average is the price other stations are buying that particular product at. Paying attention to those two things, is good in the beginning.

 

[DaveB]

Additional tip: When looking for a potential trade route, look at the system views. Check out all the stations with a commodities market. Pay no attention to the "imports/exports" data for them, just their economy types. Systems where there are one or two stations with a "minority economy" - eg most stations are industrial but there's one with an agri economy - often have interesting in-system trades or alternatives for trading to other systems that you wouldn't suspect from the other data available. Once you've found a few candidates for runs where there should be something profitably traded between 'em, ALWAYS check them out flying empty rather than coming into a new system with hold full of stuff you've bought on spec.

 

[Zylark]

Find yourself an area of operations where within a reasonable distance - one or two jumps when fully laden - you have all the major types of economies represented. Single out one of those locations as your hub, main base. Then whip out some pen and paper if going old-skool, or a spreadsheet on your laptop or tablet or whatever (you don't play demanding games on anything but a proper tower amiright?).

Next up is mapping out what those systems can deliver and what they want. Buy low, sell high. You do that by jotting down each systems commodities that are at least 400cr above or below the galactic average. Then you set up a nice little merry-go-round trade route. And to get friendly with the locals, do some missions from the bulletin boards that just happen to go to one or more of the systems on your little local trade-route.

I got one now that goes like this:

1: Land Enrichment from High Tech/Refinery to Agriculture/Tourism. Two jumps, ~1200 profit per Ton.
2: Tea from Agriculture/Tourism to Refinery/Extraction. One jump, ~800 profit per Ton.
3: Beryllium from Refinery/Extraction to Industrial/Refinery. One jump, ~900 profit per Ton
4: Silver from Industry/Refinery and back to my High Tech/Refinery hub. One jump, ~1100 profit per Ton.

Assuming full cargo, 32 Ton in my Cobra, that is a profit of ~128000 per round-trip. In reality I pick up a lot of missions that either use some cargo, or have me get specialty items not on my shopping-list. They do provide some good coin though, for the most part. And it do not hurt getting friendly with the locals. Well, not the governing locals at least. I don't do missions for pirate crews or dissidents in my all Federation trade route.

 

[maziou]

So what happens when you purchase trade info from the galaxy map? I don't see any new information pop up on my map or commodities market screen. Thanks

 

[Zylark]

So what happens when you purchase trade info from the galaxy map? I don't see any new information pop up on my map or commodities market screen. Thanks

In the commodities screen, in the very top right corner, with purchased trade data (or recently visited systems) you can change comparison prices from Galactic Average to a given system, like say the one you just purchased information on.