Some ideas for those wanting to start trading

I have had several requests on how to get started in trading.  Below are my views and a worked example (items to buy and sell) of how i would start.


Start small: it is no use ploughing in 40bn ISK if you don't know what to do.

Personally, if i knew nothing about making ISK from trading i would start with 4m ISK and see how that goes - learn the basics at 4m and that still works at 62bn ISK.  Handily, 4m ISK is also what you should come away with from the starter missions - so this applies to new players as well.  It also limits your initial sell orders to 5 or 6 - and so your time spent updating is low which leaves more time to learn from the experience.

Furthermore, the big traders and the 0.01 people don't mess around to make profits of 600k ISK a sale, it is just way too small for them - hence, you can learn your trading lessons without these people operating in your markets.


Have a dedicated trading alt: trying to PVP/PVE and then having to come back to Jita etc to trade is not really going to work.  Hence, you would be best served by setting up a dedicated alt to trade.  Ideally, you will need 2 dedicated trading alts eventually - one to do the buying in Jita and one to post the sell orders in the trading hub you choose to sell at.


Do regional trading: buy from sell orders in Jita, haul to another trade hub (say Dodixie) and put the item on the market to sell.

You don't actually need to know too much about the market cycles or even what you are selling to make Regional Trading work.  You just need to be sure that you can sell the item in the chosen trading hub somewhere close to what you put it on at (hint - check out the historical prices to see how they move).

It is perfectly possible to buy from Jita at 600k ISK to sell in Dodixie at 1.2m ISK (almost all pilots, including yourself i suspect, will not make the journey from Dodixie to Jita to save 600k ISK).


Focus on profit margins, not volume: the 0.01 undercutters focus on high volume items.  Hence, you would be best served looking for items that sell in volumes of under 10 a day (ideally under 5).  Don't be put off by that, you can still make very good profits but again without being disturbed by the 0.01 undercutters (i made 19bn last month on that strategy).  Also, the competition in these items is more rational assuming you don't disturb the market too much.  What i mean by "don't disturb the market" is if 4 of an item sell per day then at the most put up 2 of the item to sell, better still 1.  If you stampede on in there with 10 of the item to sell then the other competitors will head for the door fast and so bring down the price.  I find demand does not go up as the price of these types of item falls.


Use Eve-Central: Eve-Central is very accurate in getting the prices at Jita.  See my post on using Eve-Central on how this works.  Use it to find ideas on what to sell.  This i call "Research" and always takes the longest time with plenty of false leads followed.



The Worked Example: Below is an example of how i would deploy that initial 4m ISK to buy 5 items from Jita to sell in Dodixie (the giving of the below though may render them invalid - these trades rely on no noticeable increase in supply . . . . . so don't all pile into these at once!):

In all cases, i would buy from sell orders in Jita and put new sell orders up in Dodixie priced just below the current lowest sell order.

. . . . . . all prices as of 1 January 2014.


The Item:

In Jita Inferno Heavy Missile Blueprints are being sold by an NPC for 800k ISK.  They will always be available in Jita for this price.

In Dodixie 1 or 2 a day sell for 2m ISK.


The Trade:

I would buy one at Jita for 800k, haul to Dodixie and put on to sell for 2m (at the lowest priced order).  I would update once a day before i went to bed.  I would expect to make the sale within 3 days.

When i sold it i would reinvest the profits into repeating the trade.

The Item:

In Jita Nova Heavy Missile Blueprints are being sold by an NPC for 700k ISK.  They will always be available in Jita for this price.

In Dodixie 1 or 2 a day sell for 1.4m ISK.


The Trade:

I would buy one at Jita for 700k, haul to Dodixie and put on to sell for 1.4m (at the lowest priced order).  I would update once a day before i went to bed.  I would expect to make the sale within 3 days.

When i sold it i would reinvest the profits into repeating the trade.

The Item:

In Jita Scourge Heavy Missile Blueprints are being sold by an NPC for 750k ISK.  They will always be available in Jita for this price.

In Dodixie 2 or 3 a day sell for 1.2m ISK.


The Trade:

I would buy one at Jita for 750k, haul to Dodixie and put on to sell for 1.2m (at the lowest priced order).  I would update once a day before i went to bed.  I would expect to make the sale within 3 days.

When i sold it i would reinvest the profits into repeating the trade.



The Item:

In Jita Mining Foreman Skillbooks are being sold by other players for 155k ISK.

In Dodixie 20 a day sell for 445k ISK.


The Trade:

I would buy three at Jita for 155k each, haul to Dodixie and put on to sell for 445m (at the lowest priced order).  I would update once a day before i went to bed.  I would expect to make the sale within 3 days - these will be competitive given the high volume.

When i sold it i would reinvest the profits into repeating the trade.



The Item:

In Jita Nova Heavy Assault Missile Blueprints are being sold by an NPC for 600k ISK.  They will always be available in Jita for this price.

In Dodixie 0 or 1 a day sell for 1.6m ISK.


The Trade:

I would buy one at Jita for 600k, haul to Dodixie and put on to sell for 1.6m (at the lowest priced order).  I would update once a day before i went to bed.  I would expect to make the sale within 3 days.

When i sold it i would reinvest the profits into repeating the trade.



The outcome:

All that would cost me 3.3m ISK before broker fees and i would hope to make sales of 7.5m ISK before sales taxes.  Worth holding back that final 700k from the initial 4m to pay broker fees etc.

I would do the hauling myself in a cheap but fast ship (these items take up next to no room - i suspect you could even go on autopilot with 3.3m ISK of cargo!).

in all, profits of 4.2m before broker fees and sales taxes.  Not a bad start!