Trading Advice

OK - if you're reading this then you're probably thinking that you want to make some money by trading? Great - that's what we're going to tell you about. We're going to start out very basic and, hopefully, move on to more advanced tips later.

What is Trading?
Before we start to work out how to best make some cash from our trading activities, let's start with a very basic definition:


 * "Trading is the art of buying something and subsequently selling it for a higher price"

OK - that's somewhat simplistic and doesn't include any concepts of fame, gaining favour and so on but it will do us for a start. The rest of this document will bear that statement in mind when dishing the advice.

1. Buying: Knowing your prices
You stood in front of the market keeper, looking at his list of wares and wondering which is a good deal and which is a lame duck. How do you fathom this out?

Accounts Skill
The first and most important answer to this is the Accounts skill. It's an essential for any trader in UWO, more so than any other skill (IMHO). With the Accounts skill you can browse the list of goods on sail with a handy percentage next to each. This indicates quite how expensive (relative to "normal" price) that the goods are. A higher percent indicates a higher than normal price and a lower one indicates a lower price. Focusing on goods with lower percentages here is a good indication of a potential profit to be made. Buy goods with a higher percent at your own risk - my own personal limit is about 120% before I start to wonder if I'm going to be able to make a profit.

Other Players
Bear in mind that you've got a massive potential information network at your fingertips. There are hundreds of players located all over the map with market keepers near them who can give them instant prices to pass on to you. If you want to know whether you can make a profit running Bronze from Plymouth to London - see if you can find someone in London to give you current prices. Just keep in mind that they might change before you get to your destination if you're travelling any serious distance.

Barkeeps
Frequently when you buy yourself food and drink at the tavern, the barkeep will tell you the price of some local trade item as it sells in a remote port. This can be a pretty good indication of a profitable trip. Take note of what they say but, again, bear in mind the possibility that the prices might fluctuate during your journey.

2. Buying: Planning your goods
OK - let's assume you want to get the most profit from a trip that you possibly can. If you do then you need to keep in mind how much you can fit in your cargo hold. Some goods are a lot more expensive for a given space in your hold. If you're going to make 10% profit on a run it's better to make that on 100,000D of goods rather than 1,000 right? So - balance best % prices with raw price of the goods. General lower % is good and higher raw price is also good if you want to maximize your profits on a given run.

Also - keep in mind that you don't have to just run one sort of trade good. Go mad - fill your hold with a range of potentially profitable stuff. This offers you a little protection if market prices in one particular trade item drop as well. At least then you have other goods to fall back on.

This is also a good moment to mention the skills that increase trade goods. These follow titles along the lines of Food Trading and so on and each allows you to grab more of a good thing when you see it. It's worthwhile grabbing as many of these as you can afford to if you want to be a serious trader.

3. Buying: Haggling
You have the Accounts skill right? Well - in that case you can haggle to get better prices.. or at least attempt to. Make sure you plan out everything you want before you buy and then hit the haggle button. Hopefully you'll pass the test and get a better price. It does cost a little Vigour to do this so maybe not so worthwhile if your not haggling over much but for most transactions you'll make a significant enough saving if you pass the test.