One effective way to really pile up some serious wealth, and build your ISK account, is to find, keep, and exploit profitable trade routes. Nearly everyone interested in making quick honest money in Eve is familiar with the subject of Trade routes, but specific details about good routes are hard to come by. Traders are not an overly chatty bunch when it comes to divulging their secrets, but with a little persistence, luck, and effort, an enterprising trader can discover their own routes to profit from.

What is a Trade Route?

A trade route is not a physical thing; it is more a relationship between two points. In the free market of EVE, the only law that governs the market is that of supply and demand. When choosing a destination for your cargo, make sure you take a look at the current going rates in different areas. It is highly likely that a supply of low grade electronic parts will fetch a really high price in an area suffering from a shortage of electronic parts.

Finding a Trade Route

There are a couple of ways you can find good trade routes. The easiest, and yet time consuming, way is to do a thorough market research whenever you are docked at a station. Monitor the prices being offered for goods in different areas. Quite simply, buy at low rates and sell on high demand.

Your ship plays a major role in the success of running good trade routes. If it is large enough, you can make a good deal of money on even a modest margin through utilizing your time better. But with small cargo holds the best option would be to make your trips worthwhile.

Importantly, trade routes should be planned well. For instance, it is highly profitable to make the trade runs with a full cargo hold going both ways. Which means that not only should you learn what the other station needs, you should be aware of what the local demand market as well.

Eve Contacts- The Ladder to Success

You may be able to buy and sell without being too chatty, but those who want to spread their wings and really be 'somebody' never underestimate the value of good contacts.

The NPC stations will always have their needs and wants, but a far more lucrative market can sometimes be found catering to the needs and wants of specific corporations. Make acquaintances with as many people as you can, and try to along on good terms. Being reasonably tactful and diplomatic when required are skills not everyone can boast of. But those who can build a list of contacts, and a network of associates, will ensure a continuous and respectable profit.

Keeping Your Mouth Shut

The most important lesson a trader learns is discretion. In the EVE universe, trade routes are not just idle things to brag about with friends and whoever else is within hearing range. Large scale wars are fought by corporations over the control of profitable routes. There are times when even tight lipped and secretive traders get themselves in a fix when new competitors learn about your territory.

Eyes Wide Open

It is always important to know the level of risk you can take on a particular commodity. If you are earning low profits in a low security area, you'd be wiser to consider another profession than trading. A trader has to be smart and calculating, if you can't match your results with the risks you take then there is no hope of your getting ahead in Eve.

It is a purely logical fact that the low security areas have a high demand, high priced market. So if you are game enough, and your ship is worthy of chancing the route, then low security areas will earn better profits than any other part of Eve. However, if you try this, it would be well advised to pay close attention to your ship's insurance policy and your own clone. In case you do bump into a pirate, there should be some backup to keep you going without losing skills and your ship. Plus, to avoid being podded, keep a close eye on your scanner and always give yourself at least 30 km to make a safe escape from the prowling pirates.

Be Swift, Be Efficient

When choosing a trade route, try to make sure that your destinations are within a reasonable distance each other. The longer you take moving between points, the slower your capital will grow.

Once you are well enough established, with a safe cushion of money in the bank, you can always try putting in automated 'buy orders' at NPC stations where you can get a good price. This will give you time to concentrate some other interesting aspects of Eve.

The Right Skills

Successful traders are charmers by birth, but you can work on your skills to gain the two most significant characteristics of a thriving trader, willpower and charisma. Make sure you set these attributes high.

For the not-so-scrupulous people, the shortcut to some big ISK deals lies on the darker side of the law. Get a good grip over Underhanded Trading Practices as a skill from the very beginning and cash in later when you have made yourself worthy of being an underworld operative. Underhanded Trading Practices will, of course, allow you to move into the black market, which is arguably the most lucrative business around!