I've seen a number of posts and threads about understanding the trading system and I'm bored at work today, so I thought I would post. I'll begin with the simple stuff, but it gets a little complicated, so bear with me.
Basics:
Each planet has two numbers for each commodity, a Buy Price and a Sell Price. If you highlight the item on the trading screen, these numbers appear on the right hand side of the screen. The number in the main screen is the Buy Price ONLY. You HAVE to highlight the item to see both numbers.
With this in mind, the basic formula for calculating the Item Profit (IP) on an item is the Destination Sell Price (DSP) minus the Buy Price at your current location (CBP).
So DSP-CBP = IP. To calculate the total item profit (TIP) you can make on a run, you have to calculate the number of holds you have available in your current ship (CHA). Now the formula becomes (DSP-CBP)*CHA = TIP
Let's look at an example. Note that these prices are completely arbitrary for the purposes of this discussion. They are NOT actual prices from the game.
Using these prices we can calculate the per item profit easily.
So, if we buy a canister of Algae at Azerban for 27 and sell it at Chango for 28, our IP is 1. Simple so far, right? Now let's add in the Cargo Holds.
Now we're looking at Total Item Profit (TIP). Remember, this formula is now (DSP-CBP)*CHA = TIP. So, looking at the chart we can see that if we buy some aluminum, we can make nearly a 1000 credits profit at Chango, right? Not quite! This is the part where we're not making the money that we should. What we haven't yet accounted for is the number of items that we can AFFORD to buy (MIP), and this makes a big difference is maximizing profit. Our formula now becomes (DSP-CBP)*( The lesser of CHA vs MIP) = TIP
Now, with a basic sidewinder and a 1000 credits, our profit table looks like this
Because we can only afford one canister of Aluminum, our profit drops significantly and running 4 tons of Alloys to Dahan suddenly looks a lot more profitable. When those numbers increase by a factor of 8 for a Cobra or 38 for a Lakon, you can see that it's definitely something to consider.
If you're interested, here is the actual formula from the Excel spreadsheet I used for the images. This is the Chango / Catalyzer cell.
=(K4-B3)*IF(ROUNDDOWN(K8/B3,0)>N8,N8,ROUNDDOWN(K8/B3,0))
K4 = Chango Sell Price
B3 = Azerban Buy Price
K8 = Current Credits
N8 = Number of Cargo Holds
If you're using Excel 2007 or newer, ROUNDDOWN has been upgraded. Use the FIX function. Both round down to the nearest integer
Hope this helps!
Basics:
Each planet has two numbers for each commodity, a Buy Price and a Sell Price. If you highlight the item on the trading screen, these numbers appear on the right hand side of the screen. The number in the main screen is the Buy Price ONLY. You HAVE to highlight the item to see both numbers.
With this in mind, the basic formula for calculating the Item Profit (IP) on an item is the Destination Sell Price (DSP) minus the Buy Price at your current location (CBP).
So DSP-CBP = IP. To calculate the total item profit (TIP) you can make on a run, you have to calculate the number of holds you have available in your current ship (CHA). Now the formula becomes (DSP-CBP)*CHA = TIP
Let's look at an example. Note that these prices are completely arbitrary for the purposes of this discussion. They are NOT actual prices from the game.
Using these prices we can calculate the per item profit easily.
So, if we buy a canister of Algae at Azerban for 27 and sell it at Chango for 28, our IP is 1. Simple so far, right? Now let's add in the Cargo Holds.
Now we're looking at Total Item Profit (TIP). Remember, this formula is now (DSP-CBP)*CHA = TIP. So, looking at the chart we can see that if we buy some aluminum, we can make nearly a 1000 credits profit at Chango, right? Not quite! This is the part where we're not making the money that we should. What we haven't yet accounted for is the number of items that we can AFFORD to buy (MIP), and this makes a big difference is maximizing profit. Our formula now becomes (DSP-CBP)*( The lesser of CHA vs MIP) = TIP
Now, with a basic sidewinder and a 1000 credits, our profit table looks like this
Because we can only afford one canister of Aluminum, our profit drops significantly and running 4 tons of Alloys to Dahan suddenly looks a lot more profitable. When those numbers increase by a factor of 8 for a Cobra or 38 for a Lakon, you can see that it's definitely something to consider.
If you're interested, here is the actual formula from the Excel spreadsheet I used for the images. This is the Chango / Catalyzer cell.
=(K4-B3)*IF(ROUNDDOWN(K8/B3,0)>N8,N8,ROUNDDOWN(K8/B3,0))
K4 = Chango Sell Price
B3 = Azerban Buy Price
K8 = Current Credits
N8 = Number of Cargo Holds
If you're using Excel 2007 or newer, ROUNDDOWN has been upgraded. Use the FIX function. Both round down to the nearest integer
Hope this helps!
Last edited:
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