If interested in trading it is best to talk about what profit you make per tonne, rather than your total profit as this will depend on what ship you are flying .
Three terms to understand are :
A decent trade route should make you between 2,500 and 3,900 per tonne profit for a round trip. (1 jump each way which should take around 8-10 mins).
For example:
A trade route I am doing right now makes 2,590 credits profit per tonne (ppt) one way and 450 ppt on the way back.
Total Profit round trip = 3040 ppt
so if that takes 10mins a round trip the Profit Per Tonne Per Hour (PPT/Hr) = 3,040 x 6 = 18,240 p/hr any player can then x this by their cargo hold to work out what they would make on your route or vice versa.
the two systems are only 5.5 lyrs apart. if you can jump further you can get more profit but it will take you longer to do multiple jumps....
Examples on this route:
The Stability of your Trade route (Supply)
When you have traded your route for a while you will notice if your profit starts to drop. This will be much more apparent if you are flying something large like a T9/Cutter/Corvette. Basically it means that the station cannot produce the resources as fast as you are selling them and is more likely if the supply is already low. The route is actually no use as if you try to grind credits here very quickly the profit will drop down and not be worth your trouble. So this is worth watching before you tell your buddies you found the best route. Only to find that by the time they get to you the route is no good and you will look a right plum!!
TRADE WINGS:
Trading in a wing will allow you to use each others beacons to drastically reduce your time in supercruise, a wing of 4 could take 3 mins or more off your trading cycle. You will also get get trade dividends when you are in the same system as your friends when they sell their goods.
using my example above if my trade time was reduced from 10mins per round trip to 7 mins per round trip would make 1,878,729 per tonne x 8.57 = 16,103,391 credits per hour + trade dividends on the top. As you can see being in a wing makes a massive difference
What should I trade?
look for items with a high value and high supply such as Gold/Imperial Slaves/Paladium/Berylium and sell to systems with a high demand. Often a trade route will have one high value item going one way and something less glamorous coming back like Marine Equipment.
Make sure that after you have bought all your items that you still have enough money left in your account to pay for your re-buy cost if you die.... Very important!
The best way to find out what to trade however is not to fly around like a lemming but to use a trading tool:
TRADING TOOLS:
these do rely on Cmdrs keeping them updated so they are not perfect but certainly better than looking for yourself.
When using trading tools; search for stations that are not too far from the nav beacon (under 1000ls but the shorter the better 100ls is super), and ideally a short distance between the systems involved (shorter distance = less jumps which means you will do more trips per hour) you can base this on how far your trade ship can jump in one go.
The tools should be able to show you the PPT for various trade routes that are near to your location and are fairly self explanatory how to use.
Illegal Items/Smuggling
items which are illegal between stations are often very profitable but you must understand how to get into a station without being scanned, there are many differing opinions on the best way to do this. If you get scanned whilst you are carrying illegal cargo you will get a big fine which will wipe off any profit you would have made.
My method for entering a station without being scanned is to not approach the station entrance directly but to fly around to the front keeping at least 5.5k distance. Line up with the letterbox and fly through the letterbox quickly before it initiates a scan (even if a scan starts as long as you get in before it finnishes you will not get fined). Try not to crash into the back of the station trying to go in too fast (reduce your speed before you go through).
If you fly close to a station and are not lined up you will get scanned! Other methods involve managing your heat and going "silent" or coasting into a station by removing flight assist! If you want to smuggle you will need to do more research.
Shadow Missions (super smuggling) - picked up on the bulletin board as missions
this is a hard method of smuggling where you have to be really careful not to get scanned or your mission will fail and you will get a big fat fine... very hard and not recomended for newbies. you will need a fast ship as well as being able to use silent running effectively as being scanned by an NPC authority ship will ruin your day! But hugely profitable if you can get the hang of it, one of the most well known routes is called the "Robigo Run". feel free to look it up!
I hope thats useful and feel free to add any others tips you might have but this should just about cover how to trade in general I hope.
Delta Squadron -
If you want to make the most of trading or any other activity you find in ED the Delta Squadron Recruitment page can be found here : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219440
Member application form can be found here -http://www.deltasquad.co.uk/recruitment
Three terms to understand are :
- Profit per tonne (PPT)- This is the basic profit for selling 1 unit
- Profit per tonne per hour (PPT/Hr)- the profit made on 1 unit traded for 1 hour continuously (takes into account the time taken to make jumps (distance between systems) and time in supercruise (distance from nav beacon) This will differ from ship to ship (A T9 might carry more cargo than a conda but if it takes twice as long to do a loop then it is not necessarily more profitable)
- Profit per hour (PPH) This is really the important stat - using the profit per tonne you can then work out how much money you will make using your own ship if you did that trade route continuously for 1 hour - This is what it is all about... TIME IS MONEY!!! You are simply taking the PPT/Hr and X by your total cargo.. easy!
A decent trade route should make you between 2,500 and 3,900 per tonne profit for a round trip. (1 jump each way which should take around 8-10 mins).
For example:
A trade route I am doing right now makes 2,590 credits profit per tonne (ppt) one way and 450 ppt on the way back.
Total Profit round trip = 3040 ppt
so if that takes 10mins a round trip the Profit Per Tonne Per Hour (PPT/Hr) = 3,040 x 6 = 18,240 p/hr any player can then x this by their cargo hold to work out what they would make on your route or vice versa.
the two systems are only 5.5 lyrs apart. if you can jump further you can get more profit but it will take you longer to do multiple jumps....
Examples on this route:
- Asp with the max 128 cargo you would make 3,040 x 128 = 389,120 credits every 10mins - 2,334,720 mil per hour
- Type 7 with the max 232 cargo you would make 3,040 x 232 = 705,280 credits every 10 mins which is 4,231,680 mil per hour
- A Federal Corvette with 618 cargo (what i use) 3,040 x 618 = 1,878,720 credits every 10 mins which is 11,272,320 per hour
The Stability of your Trade route (Supply)
When you have traded your route for a while you will notice if your profit starts to drop. This will be much more apparent if you are flying something large like a T9/Cutter/Corvette. Basically it means that the station cannot produce the resources as fast as you are selling them and is more likely if the supply is already low. The route is actually no use as if you try to grind credits here very quickly the profit will drop down and not be worth your trouble. So this is worth watching before you tell your buddies you found the best route. Only to find that by the time they get to you the route is no good and you will look a right plum!!
TRADE WINGS:
Trading in a wing will allow you to use each others beacons to drastically reduce your time in supercruise, a wing of 4 could take 3 mins or more off your trading cycle. You will also get get trade dividends when you are in the same system as your friends when they sell their goods.
using my example above if my trade time was reduced from 10mins per round trip to 7 mins per round trip would make 1,878,729 per tonne x 8.57 = 16,103,391 credits per hour + trade dividends on the top. As you can see being in a wing makes a massive difference
What should I trade?
look for items with a high value and high supply such as Gold/Imperial Slaves/Paladium/Berylium and sell to systems with a high demand. Often a trade route will have one high value item going one way and something less glamorous coming back like Marine Equipment.
Make sure that after you have bought all your items that you still have enough money left in your account to pay for your re-buy cost if you die.... Very important!
The best way to find out what to trade however is not to fly around like a lemming but to use a trading tool:
TRADING TOOLS:
- Elite Dangerous Database - https://eddb.io/ (thanks to Dlumis for this one)
- Thrudds: - http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/
these do rely on Cmdrs keeping them updated so they are not perfect but certainly better than looking for yourself.
When using trading tools; search for stations that are not too far from the nav beacon (under 1000ls but the shorter the better 100ls is super), and ideally a short distance between the systems involved (shorter distance = less jumps which means you will do more trips per hour) you can base this on how far your trade ship can jump in one go.
The tools should be able to show you the PPT for various trade routes that are near to your location and are fairly self explanatory how to use.
Illegal Items/Smuggling
items which are illegal between stations are often very profitable but you must understand how to get into a station without being scanned, there are many differing opinions on the best way to do this. If you get scanned whilst you are carrying illegal cargo you will get a big fine which will wipe off any profit you would have made.
My method for entering a station without being scanned is to not approach the station entrance directly but to fly around to the front keeping at least 5.5k distance. Line up with the letterbox and fly through the letterbox quickly before it initiates a scan (even if a scan starts as long as you get in before it finnishes you will not get fined). Try not to crash into the back of the station trying to go in too fast (reduce your speed before you go through).
If you fly close to a station and are not lined up you will get scanned! Other methods involve managing your heat and going "silent" or coasting into a station by removing flight assist! If you want to smuggle you will need to do more research.
Shadow Missions (super smuggling) - picked up on the bulletin board as missions
this is a hard method of smuggling where you have to be really careful not to get scanned or your mission will fail and you will get a big fat fine... very hard and not recomended for newbies. you will need a fast ship as well as being able to use silent running effectively as being scanned by an NPC authority ship will ruin your day! But hugely profitable if you can get the hang of it, one of the most well known routes is called the "Robigo Run". feel free to look it up!
I hope thats useful and feel free to add any others tips you might have but this should just about cover how to trade in general I hope.
Delta Squadron -
If you want to make the most of trading or any other activity you find in ED the Delta Squadron Recruitment page can be found here : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=219440
Member application form can be found here -http://www.deltasquad.co.uk/recruitment
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