How to trade without 3rd party trading tools

[Shads]

I know lots of people are using trading tools to find good trade routes but I really find Alt-Tabbing out of the game to enter trade data massively annoying and immersion breaking. Even taking notes pen and note pad style is a pain and not my idea of fun. I have committed myself to finding the best trade routes using only the tools provided by the game

My formula for finding a good trade route is as follows…..

1. First, find a good Hi-tech station no more than 1000ls from the jump beacon selling high value items cheaply (consumer tech, progenitor cells, performance enhancers etc) also with a high demand for valuable metals (gold, palladium etc)

2. Now look for an extraction/refinery system close by. (Industrial and agricultural systems tend not to have anything of any value to sell back to your high tech station so I ignore those.)
Tip: in the galaxy map limit the trade routes only to valuable metals and the high value items you are carrying to find your potential customers

Note: When I say extraction/refinery I am referring to a system with a combined extraction/refinery station not extraction OR refinery

3. Start fanning out from the Hi-tech system to all the extraction/refinery systems with maybe a dozen of each of you potential selling items in your hold. You are looking for one with a high supply of valuable metals and a high demand for one of the items in your hold. Preferably it will also be close to the jump beacon. Sell them a single example of each of the items you are carrying. You are looking for anything with at least a 1k per tonne profit.

4. Aim to travel no more than 3 systems to find your extraction/refinery station. If you cant find one move to another hi-tech system are repeat from step 2

My goal here is to find a two way trade route averaging at least 1.2k per tone and taking no more than 15 mins there and back. I have found a few of these so far and they tend to be almost inexhaustible because the numbers of products are so high. The added advantage is that because they have not been discovered by a crowd sourcing trade tool, they aren’t flooded with pilots.

Fly Safe O7

 

[bamber]

I found myself a good 5 station route and then started to optimise it.
.
Found a good run and then went off and looked at the galaxy map and found another similar system close by and visited it - chances are what I was carrying would sell and I would be able to buy what I needed. BUT I might be able to increase my profits.
.
now have a 6 station run that is really profitable (I found a good buy and sell of imperial slaves)
.
Excel spreadsheet and Access do help to optimise as well, especially in the larger ships to ensure you use your trading cash wisely 150T of Fish can gibve you more profit that 70T of Tea for instance but when you have the cash 150T of tea is the way to go - and only a trading tool will tell you that

 

[Toscaner]

I found myself a good 5 station route and then started to optimise it.
.
Found a good run and then went off and looked at the galaxy map and found another similar system close by and visited it - chances are what I was carrying would sell and I would be able to buy what I needed. BUT I might be able to increase my profits.
.
now have a 6 station run that is really profitable (I found a good buy and sell of imperial slaves)
.
Excel spreadsheet and Access do help to optimise as well, especially in the larger ships to ensure you use your trading cash wisely 150T of Fish can gibve you more profit that 70T of Tea for instance but when you have the cash 150T of tea is the way to go - and only a trading tool will tell you that

i would argue a calculator does the same thing..

nice tips OP. i it in a similar way, if i can be bothered

 

[Mikey2305]

I can never quite see the point of these tools. Extraction, refinery, industrial, high tech and agricultural systems all have stuff to sell and stuff they want to buy. A recce around once or twice and you can easily work that out for yourself... Simples

 

[blacky75]

I know lots of people are using trading tools to find good trade routes but I really find Alt-Tabbing out of the game to enter trade data massively annoying and immersion breaking. Even taking notes pen and note pad style is a pain and not my idea of fun. I have committed myself to finding the best trade routes using only the tools provided by the game

My formula for finding a good trade route is as follows…..

1. First, find a good Hi-tech station no more than 1000ls from the jump beacon selling high value items cheaply (consumer tech, progenitor cells, performance enhancers etc) also with a high demand for valuable metals (gold, palladium etc)

2. Now look for an extraction/refinery system close by. (Industrial and agricultural systems tend not to have anything of any value to sell back to your high tech station so I ignore those.)
Tip: in the galaxy map limit the trade routes only to valuable metals and the high value items you are carrying to find your potential customers

Note: When I say extraction/refinery I am referring to a system with a combined extraction/refinery station not extraction OR refinery

3. Start fanning out from the Hi-tech system to all the extraction/refinery systems with maybe a dozen of each of you potential selling items in your hold. You are looking for one with a high supply of valuable metals and a high demand for one of the items in your hold. Preferably it will also be close to the jump beacon. Sell them a single example of each of the items you are carrying. You are looking for anything with at least a 1k per tonne profit.

4. Aim to travel no more than 3 systems to find your extraction/refinery station. If you cant find one move to another hi-tech system are repeat from step 2

My goal here is to find a two way trade route averaging at least 1.2k per tone and taking no more than 15 mins there and back. I have found a few of these so far and they tend to be almost inexhaustible because the numbers of products are so high. The added advantage is that because they have not been discovered by a crowd sourcing trade tool, they aren’t flooded with pilots.

Fly Safe O7

Bumping this interestening post.... as found out also by myself that way. There are stiill lot of station NOT mentioned in the said 'tools'... therefore, remain 'hidden' to those who only use tools

Best I've found so far within 12Minutes: 1750cr up, 1000cr down (benefit/ton) ^^

 

[Yokai]

I know lots of people are using trading tools to find good trade routes but I really find Alt-Tabbing out of the game to enter trade data massively annoying and immersion breaking. Even taking notes pen and note pad style is a pain and not my idea of fun. I have committed myself to finding the best trade routes using only the tools provided by the game

My formula for finding a good trade route is as follows…..

1. First, find a good Hi-tech station no more than 1000ls from the jump beacon selling high value items cheaply (consumer tech, progenitor cells, performance enhancers etc) also with a high demand for valuable metals (gold, palladium etc)

2. Now look for an extraction/refinery system close by. (Industrial and agricultural systems tend not to have anything of any value to sell back to your high tech station so I ignore those.)
Tip: in the galaxy map limit the trade routes only to valuable metals and the high value items you are carrying to find your potential customers

Note: When I say extraction/refinery I am referring to a system with a combined extraction/refinery station not extraction OR refinery

3. Start fanning out from the Hi-tech system to all the extraction/refinery systems with maybe a dozen of each of you potential selling items in your hold. You are looking for one with a high supply of valuable metals and a high demand for one of the items in your hold. Preferably it will also be close to the jump beacon. Sell them a single example of each of the items you are carrying. You are looking for anything with at least a 1k per tonne profit.

4. Aim to travel no more than 3 systems to find your extraction/refinery station. If you cant find one move to another hi-tech system are repeat from step 2

My goal here is to find a two way trade route averaging at least 1.2k per tone and taking no more than 15 mins there and back. I have found a few of these so far and they tend to be almost inexhaustible because the numbers of products are so high. The added advantage is that because they have not been discovered by a crowd sourcing trade tool, they aren’t flooded with pilots.

Fly Safe O7

Nice guide and rep given.
That said, here are some refinements and critiques (not necessarily of your method, but of FD's current implementation for in-game trading clues/info):

Your approach does work, but your steps 1 and 2 are greatly hampered by game design. The galaxy map shows a color for the type of system (industrial, agricultural, etc.) but this obscures what are quite often the best stations/outposts to trade at. For example, my current trade route is a simple 13 Ly Hop between a Refinery station and an Industrial station. I get roughly 1330 cr/ton in both directions, and the round trip is roughly ~12 minutes, so my cr/ton/hour is 13,245. Which is pretty much the motherlode: I've never seen anything higher, and trust me, I look hard and have no qualms about using 3rd party tools.

The problem? On the galaxy map, one of my SYSTEMS is listed as "Service", and the other is listed as "Industrial". Other great routes I've found are between such seeming mismatches as an "Agricultural" system and a "High Tech" system. Point being, the Galaxy Map is only part of the real story, and unless people enjoy examining literally every station every system map and marking down details, it is _extremely_ difficult and tedious to find potential STATION to STATION pairs that might yield good results. Another huge problem with the in-game galaxy map is that the lines displayed by "Show Trade Routes" are highly misleading unless you filter them down to a specific commodity type. And even then, they often won't show the most profitiable link between two systems that are two or three jumps from each other. They are _highly_ misleading and worthless, overall. See the green link in my sig block below for how I think these trade route lines could be made much more useful and help players not need 3rd party tools.

If I were to simplify the most methodical in-game-only approach, I would suggest a slight tweak to your method:

1. Know/ask for the typical big-ticket items that comprise the best per/ton commodities, which are all things that cost more than 5,000 cr/unit: Palladium, Gold, Berylium, Tobacco, Imperial Slaves, Consumer Technology, Superconductors, Performance Enhancers, Progenitor Cells, and Resonating Separators. NOTICE how many of these are typically "High Tech" or "Industrial" or "Refinery" items?

2. Filter the Galaxy Map to highlight ONLY High Tech and Industrial Systems, and most importantly, set the "Show by Size" controls to a very small range on the high end (to show ONLY high population systems): I put the MIN slider up at about 65%, and the MAX slider at 100% to accomplish this. Now your galaxy map is displaying good candidates for one end of a good trade route.

3. Visit each candidate system and look for stations in that system that are also listed as "High Tech" or "Industrial" or "Refinery". Open the commodities list and look for any of the candidate goods (from step 1) that are HIGH in either the Demand or Supply columns. Note how far above/below the Galactic Average the respective buy/sell price is. If it's at least +-500 from the Galactic Average, look over on the right side for the list of systems that the product is imported from or exported to. Chances are good that one or more of those listed systems will be the _other_ end of a decent trade route. IMPORTANT: Do not pay any attention to the "type" of the listed system. Some of the real gems are hidden within system "mismatches" as I've described in my opening remarks!

4. Now go visit each of those other candidate systems and look for a total cr/ton profit for the chosen commodity of AT LEAST 1000. If you find such a deal, start looking at other items on the other system's commodity list that are above/below Galactic Average by AT LEAST 300. If any of those candidates point back to the system you just came from, you just found a potentially good trade route.

As described in the orange link below in my sig block, the magic number you're looking for is 8,000 cr/ton/hour on a trade route between those two systems. If you find that, it's a pretty good "milk run". Note that you _can_ find up to 13,000 cr/ton/hr or even 14,000 cr/ton/hr trade routes, but you have to work very very very very hard to find those home runs, even with 3rd party crowdsourced data/tools.

Good luck!