How to find the best profit trade routes?
- Thread starter rupok
- Start date
A lot of trial and error, knowing what to sell and what to buy in regards to neighboring systems.. all else fails the trading tools like slopeys can be useful. Thrudds tool is great too 
http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/
http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/
Scan the Galaxy map for Economic regions with good variety of types and distribution. Then use Thrudds (http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/), Slopeys BPC (http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76081) or ksfone's tradedangerous (http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34986) to check the trades in the local system group you chose. If you're lucky, the data will be available. If not, pilot to your new home, and update those tools as required with data to find the best trades. Lastly, hope that the local system group you've chosen has excellent trade opportunities. For easy of entry, Slopey's BPC is the easiest. For the most bang for the buck, ksfone's Trade Dangerous. Neither are difficult to update, but ksfone asks for additional information that Slopey's does not. The additional information will however tighten your profit margin a lot and in some cases significantly.
Good luck Cmdr, enjoy the hunt for a new home.
Good luck Cmdr, enjoy the hunt for a new home.
I'm just trying to understand how to read the supply and demand. In a station some things it lets me buy shows medium demand, low demand, etc. Is that demand for the product in other stations, to export it there? If so, do you look just for the high demand then?
Fly around until you find somewhere with a med/high supply of a high value (>3000cr) item, these will tend to be metals, minerals or tech items. Do this for a good 10-20 nearby systems, whilst in each one, also note down any with a medium or high demand for something valuable. Then sit down with a pencil and start joining lines.
Failing that, grab slopeys trading tool and let it tell you
ie. currently I am running Palladium from one system to another, then taking progenitor cells back. Each ton of palladium gets me 1500 profit and the progenitor cells around 1000 per ton. This takes me 3 jumps each way with about 27 LY between them.
Failing that, grab slopeys trading tool and let it tell you
ie. currently I am running Palladium from one system to another, then taking progenitor cells back. Each ton of palladium gets me 1500 profit and the progenitor cells around 1000 per ton. This takes me 3 jumps each way with about 27 LY between them.
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Slopey's tool saved my marriage.
Well, okay not really. It did save my sanity and frustration levels. So nice to put in a couple systems and stations, and then oh look, that run will net me 8K out and 15K back, or whatever. So handy.
Combine that with the new improved auto-route mapping, and trading is actually fun and relaxing now. And, you make decent enough money to see progress in your bank account.
Well, okay not really. It did save my sanity and frustration levels. So nice to put in a couple systems and stations, and then oh look, that run will net me 8K out and 15K back, or whatever. So handy.
Combine that with the new improved auto-route mapping, and trading is actually fun and relaxing now. And, you make decent enough money to see progress in your bank account.
I have a sneaky little trade route to the middle of space that is getting me about 125k per 4 minute journey in my Lakon 6 100 tonner. Not always starport to starport that gets the best money. That is £1.8m per hour of play.
The Lakon Type-6 Transporter Cargo Capacity can be increased to a max of 112, or 100 if you want shields.
Supply and Demand are specific to that Station. So for instance, say your Station lists Palladium at 2500 High Demand. That means they have 2500 Units in stock and require a whole lot more. So they are paying through the nose for Palladium, well above Galactic average. Optimally, you need to find a station with Palladium 500000 High Supply. They will have way to much stock and will be offering it dirt cheap, well below Galactic average.
Read the traffic reports of stations. If more than 10-15 ships through in the last 24 hours then run away and find a quiter cluster of system approx 20LY apart. Recon the systems/stations and I guarantee you'll find a good route.
Top-Tip: Focus exclusively on high-value items (Gold, Palladium, etc etc) that give you upwards of 1500cr per ton profit.
Top-Tip: Focus exclusively on high-value items (Gold, Palladium, etc etc) that give you upwards of 1500cr per ton profit.
There is only one pairing of stations on a trade route that really makes sense and that limits the number of trade routes so much that i'm not going to disclose which ones - In Fed space you won't find many of the ideal combos and bigger ships that require large pads limit the number even more. Funny thing is that the trade routes i used in Fed space in Gamma weren't so bad but since the flood gates opened now they are practically unusable at the moment unless you love to waste time on inefficient trading.
- In Fed space you won't find many of the ideal combos and bigger ships that require large pads limit the number even more. Funny thing is that the trade routes i used in Fed space in Gamma weren't so bad but since the flood gates opened now they are practically unusable at the moment unless you love to waste time on inefficient trading.
i used your trade tool bought palladium from an extraction system went to a high tech system ..... And made a loss.
No substitute for finding your own the hard way. The less people milking it the less volatile the route proffitsss.
Cheers
Edit: I have a three way which pays big on two runs and OK on the third. Not always easy to find
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Yes the 'Traders Bible' is too simplistic - better is Zpike's http://rapiersoft.com/ED_Sales.htm
The galaxy map will list a system as, say, High Tech Refinery. You need to visit a station end enter the Commodity Market to confirm the actual station economy, it could be any combination of High Tech and Refinery, even the order matters.
IMHO the systems with the most opportunity for regular trading are 'High Tech - Extraction' - Import is easy as they buy metals at good margins and it should be simple to find a nearby source. Depending on that source, you should be able to find something to make a decent Export such e.g. technology, meds, weapons. My local pairing has Resonating Separators <-> Beryllium for a 2k/ton round trip. Or to a nearby Ag system I can do Land-Enrichment Systems <-> Animal Meat for 1600/ton round trip.
Then you didn't buy it at low enough cost and didn't sell it at a place that had a demand for it. Not all stations need all goods that are "typical" for that economy. If the sale price is lower than you bought it for, don't sell it! You only have yourself to blame for making a loss, you could've easily found another place to sell.
Had a look at zpikes, looks good. What do the d's and s's stand for?
ive used slopeys in concert with what i know to be profitable goods and bought alot of galaxy map trade data...and lastly a bit of luck ran thru at least 40 tries till i found what i wanted.im on a 2700c round trip,that took me over a day to find
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Demand and Supply. It can't be 100% reliable because there is occasional randomization of individual commodities, but it's the best general guide available. You can see from it why you want to pair particular *station* types, and the system economy is just a guide to what station types should be found within. E.g. a system near me is listed in the galaxy map as Agri-Extraction, but you can see from the system map there are two stations, one Agri, the other Extraction - those are different columns on Zpike's Sales List. My current high-tech system is listed as 'High-Tech + Extraction' and the station is also 'High-Tech + Extraction'.