Trading

Until recently trading was just about the only way to make money. Although there are now other options, trading cargo widgets is still the most profitable means of acquiring your own personal fortune. The basics of trading is a simple concept. You buy cargo at a low price and sell it someplace else for a higher price. Easier said than done. Discovering a good route can be a long process, but the rewards are well worth it. One simple way is to load your ship up with as many single cargo widgets as you can fit. Ships like the Centaur can hold up to 48 different types of cargo allowing you to carry many types of cargo. Don't give up if you don't find a good route right away.

## So You Have A Route

Now that you have a route it's time to exploit it and get as much money as you can from it. If you already have a decent amount of money, at least 100,000cr, don't sell your cargo. Instead hit "Unload All" to leave all your cargo in the station without selling it. This is called stockpiling and is the best way to get the most from your route. If possible, try to find a profitable widget from station B to bring back to station A to gain more money. After amassing a large amount of cargo in the stations, sell them. Or, if you have money to spare, let it sit and wait for the price to rise. Be warned, other people can and most likely will find your route and sell before you do, so only wait if you are willing to go without the income for a bit.

Stockpiling is now of only marginal use. Dumping your stock will give you a per-unit price that decreases the more you sell at once. You can still hold on to it for later though, as the in-game economy is dynamic.

### Tips

* Mining and trading can go along very well together. For instance if you mine a rare type of ore and stockpile it in a close by station, you can transport it to another station a few systems away to make an even bigger profit. Few if anybody does this, and the result is that stations nearby the rare ore often does not sell very well.
* The news can often help you find a good route. By giving you a list of what that particular station needs you can plan ahead, keep a mental list or one on paper is better, and keep an eye out for the cargo a station needs.
* Someone has made a handy dandy site that lets you match up two stations and shows you their differences in trade goods. You can find it right around here.
* Smuggling different weapons between stations can often give you tons of profit. Keep an eye on price. Moreover, most of the stations have fixed price on equipment.

### Ships To Carry Your Cargo In

Ships listed are the basic versions. See the ships list for full information.

 Turbo
 Weapons
 Level

(s)= Small Port (l)= Large Port

* The Revenant is the perfect entry level trading ship. Enough weapons ports to keep you safe from Hive ships, and enough cargo room to get you through the basic trade missions.
* The Warthog Mineral Extractor is definitely worth a try early on in your advancement, for combined Mining and Trading, as it has **24 cu** cargo space, an S & an L weapons port, and is relatively fast and agile.
* The Atlas is a decent trading ship, but once you have a Centaur you can pretty much ignore this one. It is fast and has plenty of cargo room. But often is easy prey for pirates.
* The Centaur slow and hard to move this ship has often been ignored by traders with access to the Marauder, but it does its job very well, and that job is to move large amounts of cargo in one go. The Centaur has the ability to carry two sets of mines, enough to send any pirate to their grave.
* The Marauder is the fastest cargo transport ship in the game. Its TPG variant can carry up to 48 cargo widgets, and the Tunguska 60. Although all but the Tunguska version lack L port weapons it can still fend for its self or simply speed by any pirate blockade.
* The Behemoth is yet another win for the TPG corporation. When you need to move large amounts of cargo, the Behemoth is your ship, with a capacity of 120cu.

### List of Trade Goods

This is a, hopefully complete, list of the various trade goods that can be found within the game. There is another table which sorts the trade goods by the "type of good", which contains pictures for all of the trade goods.

### Avoiding and Escaping Pirates

For information on avoiding and escaping pirates, visit the [VPR]pedia, which can be found here.