TradingActivity Guide

Trading is moving commodities from where they are cheap to where they are wanted, and pocketing the spread. The galaxy runs a living economy: each station has an economy type that produces some goods and demands others, and the difference between a producer's price and a consumer's price is your profit per tonne. Multiply by the size of your hold and the speed of your route, and you have an income.

The minute-to-minute loop never changes:

1. Read the market

   Find a profitable spread.

2. Buy & fill

   Load the hold at the source.

3. Haul

   Jump, dodge interdictions.

4. Sell & repeat

   Cash out, reload the return leg.

Trading is the inverse of combat's risk profile: low danger, low drama, but it rewards planning and information over reflexes. The skill is route-finding and market-reading, not gunnery — and the ceiling is enormous once you scale into the biggest hulls and the wing-mission economy.

Supply, demand & economy types

Every commodity has a galactic average price; a station sells below average what its economy produces and pays above average for what it consumes. The classic pairings: extraction/refinery economies feed industrial and hi-tech ones; agricultural feeds industrial; hi-tech and industrial produce the high-value manufactured goods. The bigger the supply and demand numbers, the more tonnes you can move before the price moves against you.

The hold & the route

Cargo capacity is your master stat — profit scales linearly with tonnes per trip. Jump range and route length set how fast those trips cycle. The best loops are two stations close together (ideally same system or one jump) with a profitable commodity each way, so you never fly empty.

Market information

You cannot read distant prices from the cockpit, so traders live on community market data (Inara and similar trackers, fed by player tools). Finding the current best loops, rare-goods routes and CG hand-in prices is half the role. Prices drift as players trade them out, so the meta route is always moving.

Risk: interdiction & smuggling

1. Get a small hauler

   Any hull with a few cargo racks and a token shield. Don't over-invest — early trading is about building capital, not perfection. The Trading — Ship Comparison page will help you pick an appropriate trading ship.

2. Find a loop

   Use a market tracker to find two nearby stations with a profitable commodity in each direction, so you fly loaded both ways.

3. Fill the hold and learn to submit

   Buy to capacity. When interdicted, submit, then boost and high-wake out rather than fighting.

4. Reinvest into cargo

   Every profit goes into a bigger hold or a bigger ship. Capacity compounds: doubling tonnes doubles income on the same route.

5. Take trade missions alongside

   They stack neatly with a loop and build the faction reputation you'll want later for rank and CG access.

6. Watch the price drift

   A route's margin shrinks as it's traded out; be ready to move to the next loop when the spread thins.

Mid-game trading is about scaling tonnage and chasing the high-value mechanics.

Scale the hull

Move up to a large-internal hauler and engineer the FSD and thrusters so a heavy hull still cycles routes quickly. Cargo capacity is the lever — bigger hold, bigger trips, same effort.

Chase the high-margin work

• Wing trade missions — the mid-game's standout earner; a big hauler can solo the smaller ones for outsized pay.
• Rare-goods circuits — plan a long loop of rare-commodity origin points and a distant sell hub.
• Community Goals — show up to delivery CGs for tiered rewards and useful modules.

• Maximum-tonnage hauling — the biggest freighters (Type-9, Cutter, Type-11 carrying cargo) running the highest-margin loops and wing missions for sustained nine-figure income.
• Colonisation logistics — bankrolling and supplying a colony build, moving the thousands of tonnes of construction goods it needs through its tiers.
• Fleet-carrier trading — using a carrier as a mobile market and warehouse to stage huge deliveries, CG contributions and colonisation hauls.
• Trade Elite — the trade rank climbs to Elite naturally as the credits pile up; a prestige cap on the role.
• Powerplay fortification at scale — moving the commodity tonnage that swings a Power's standing, banking merits as you go.

Full ratings, cargo figures and costs live in the comparison dossier — shortlist by stage below.

• Never fly empty. A good loop is profitable in both directions; a one-way haul wastes half your trips.
• Tonnes are everything. Profit scales linearly with cargo — capacity upgrades beat almost any other spend.
• Check the market before every run. Routes get traded out; the best spread is a moving target.
• Submit, don't fight. Submitting to interdiction cools the FSD faster so you can high-wake away — freighters don't win brawls.
• Mind cargo legality per jurisdiction. A legal good in one system is contraband in another; a scan can cost you the hold and a bounty.
• Wing missions solo. A big hauler can complete the smaller wing-trade missions alone for payouts far above loop trading.
• Engineer the freighter in place if it's an ARX hull. It preserves the free rebuy — never sell and re-buy a Jumpstart ship.