So, I was talking with a friend in the chat, and we got started on talking about stocks. One thing led to another, and I though I might as well just make a little guide. And then it turned out to be a guide on the whole money making business. It's far from complete, and even farther from being perfect, so feel free to post additions and corrections. This is probably old news for anyone who's been playing for a while, but I hope it might be helpful for our newer players. Here it comes:
Xerneas' guide to moneymaking!
So, what's the secret to making money? There's really no secret. It's actually blindingly obvious. You make people give it to you in exchange for something else. That's all there is to it. I'll explain in some more detail further below. There are five main ways of making money.
Jobs
Trade
Bank
Stocks
Company
Casino
Misc, Tips and Tricks
Jobs
There are two kinds of jobs you can take in Torn: Regular jobs, and company jobs. If this is your first day in torn, you can choose between three jobs: Army, Grocer and Casino. And, the pay in all of those are... crap. However, you will gain working stats, which will help you a great deal when it comes to applying for company jobs.
To take on a company job, you will have to be a minimum of level three. The first company jobs you get will not be paying a lot, but you'll still be able to secure 50-100k a day which is running in circles around the $125-$250 you can get from the starter jobs! There are also companies which pay a lot less, but have great specials, such as for example the fitness center. But, this is a guide to making money, so I'll assume you've gotten a job which pays atleast 50k a day. Now, what to do with your new found wealth?
Trade
Trade. The art of buying cheap and selling less cheap. How much you can make from trade depends on three things: How much money you have, how much time you have and are willing to spend, and lastly, luck.
At first, you will not be making much from trading. If you only have 50k to spend, there is a limit to how much you can buy at a time, and therefore, naturally a limit to how much you can sell. Stalk the trade chat, and the forums, and if you see someone selling something under market value, buy it. That's pretty much all there is too it, except: You must always consider how much you can get for it when you're selling it. Never buy if you are not certain you can get at least the same amount of money as you gave for it.
After you've bought the goods you're going to sell and earn your first profit on, all you need is a place to sell it. The two main channels of selling are the trade chat, and bazaars. Now, opening a bazaar can cost a lot of money. 250 points, which at todays value (80k, roughly) equals out to 20 millions. So, I will assume that you cannot afford a bazaar right now, and that means that there's one option left for you: The trade chat. You will get less for your items in the trade chat. Sometimes, a lot less. The trick is to pay attention to what others are asking, and then ask for slightly more than everyone else is asking. Though, of course, in a private message to the buyer, not directly in the chat. You don't want anyone to snipe your customer!
Most buyers are operating with a window of profits that can be stretched to some degree. If they are, for example, selling xanax at 850k, and buying them at 800k, they can most often be persuaded to give (again, for example) 805k for them, instead of the initial 800k. Demand is vastly bigger than the supply in the trade chat, and so most buyers are quite keen to make a deal. Again, do the negotiations in private messages, not chat or forum. You don't want anyone else to butt in and offer their goods for a lower price at you, forcing you either to lose profits or walk away.
After you've earned a bit of money, you can open up your own bazaar, and now you are the one waiting in the trade chat, lurking for fresh pray (noobs) with loot of which they have no idea of the value. Mwahahaha! Or something.
Bank
This one is really self explanatory. You deposit money for a set period of time, bank gives you interest. You can improve interest rates either by using merits, or buying the Torn City Investement Banking stock benefit block. Though, the last on is quite expensive: You need 1.5m shares to get the benefit, and at todays value of ca. $1000 per stock, that equals out to $1.500.000.000. That's 1.5 billion, if you can't read it.
The thing with the bank is, you need money to make money. The trick here is to deposit all the money you can (though still leaving enough to trade with) for one week at a time, each week depositing your profit and putting it in for a new week. Repeat that untill you have maxed out your bank account (around 2bil), and then start depositing it for two months at a time, as that is where you get the highest percent interest.
Stocks
To trade stocks, you need a stock ticker. They can be bought at the points building for 25 points. Oh boy. Stocks. They are at the same time really easy, and really difficult. Stocks and trading are pretty much the same thing in the aspect that the goal is to buy cheaply and sell expensively. Easy in principle, but oh so hard to do. There are some tricks and tips that will make it easier for you to see if a stock is going to increase or decrease in value, but there is also an aspect of luck and psychology involved.
The easiest way to determine where a stock is going, is to take a look at the forecast in the stocks «Info» tab. However, I haven't the faintest idea on what this forecast is based upon, and it's very often inaccurate, so I don't suggest you use it as your main guiding point. Now, if you will, move your way to the stocks «About» tab...
Now, to your left, you will find a lot of text on the companies history or something like that. This is completely unimporant and can be ignored, unless you wish to get a better insight in the cities lore. Or something. On your right, on the other hand, (hehe) is where the imporant information is. There are three fields lined up. The top one describes what the company/stock is or does. The second tab (not always present, more on this in the next paragraph) describes what the stocks value is dependent on, and the last tab tells you what the stock bonus is, and how many stocks you need to get it.
Now, for the actual buy-and-sell value of the stock, the mid tab is our main interest. It tells us what the stocks value is dependent on. For example, International School TC's (ISTC) value is dependent on the number of people enrolled in education courses, and Torn City Health Service's (TCHS) value is dependent on the amount of people in hospital. If there is no information on what the stocks value is dependent on... Well, just roll with the punches I guess? Look at the forecasts and the graphs and make an educated guess. Look for trends or patterns.
For the rest of this part about stocks, let's use TCHS as our example. As mentioned, the value of the stock depends on the amount of people in hospital. This doesn't mean that you can buy stocks there, hospitalize some people, and sell for a profit. We're talking a large amount of people before it makes any noticeable difference. So, when would be a good time to buy TCHS stocks?
How about right before the World War event? Or is that not a thing anymore? Anyhow, if you don't know, there have been World War Events on Torn, where everyone teamed together with other players from their own country, and then kicked the living shit out of each other. The country with the most wins would get a merit or something, and everyone became really nationalistic and other healthy things like that. Back to the point. During the world war events, the hospitals would be packed. Everyone were hosping everyone, and the value of TCHS stocks went through the roof. This is how you need to think in regards of stocks.
Thinking onwards, when might a good time to own TCHS stocks in the future be? If you get wind of HoF faction wars perhaps? You have to think for yourself here: If you think a time is closing in where more people than normal get hospitalized, that's a good time to buy TCHS stocks. It's the same way with all stocks see what defines the price, and think. Always think.
And then, of course, there's the stock bonuses. All stocks have a bonus, which you will recieve if you have the set amount of stocks. You can read what the bonus is, and how many stocks you need to get it, in the «About» tab in the stock market. While stock bonuses can be nice, they take a long time - often years - before they return the money you spendt on the stock to get them. Combine them with reading the market and buying cheap stocks and then selling them again expensively to maximize profits.
A full list of stock benefits can be found here: http://www.torn.com/wiki/Stock_Market#Stock_Benefits
Companies
Once you reach level 10, you can start your own company. I won't go into any depth on running a company here, because as a general rule, they won't earn you much. They take a lot of time, money and effort to make a profit. Many never do at all.
I'll mention the two easiest ways of making money on companies here. Number one: Buying and selling them. Buy them cheaply, sell them less so. The drawback here is, it takes time. And, if the employees of the company you are selling leave in the meantime, the value sinks. Immensely.
Number two: Sweet shops. Get them to five stars, and many workers work for free, because they want the special (energy drinks). Some even charge their workers one or two cans a week just for being allowed to work there (and they don't pay them either) and that is in addition to the profit the company makes. Fitness centers also get away with paying their employees next to nothing because of the nice specials (statgains). But, that is also only once they reach five stars.
Oil companies also makes nice profits, but damn... prices. To summarize: You'd better have a big fat bank account before you start a company, and you need to learn from someone better than I to learn how to run them.
Casino
Just putting it here for completeness sake. Do it for fun, not to earn money. In the long run, you will lose. I repeat. YOU. WILL. LOSE. MONEY. Unless you're damn good at poker that is.* If you have to gamble, I'd suggest the slots. You can also do a google search on roulette strategies, to see how to have a better chance of turning a profit there. However, let me repeat this once more: If you want to earn money, STAY AWAY FROM THE CASINO. There. If you haven't gotten it by now, I can't help you.
*Warning: You are probably not good at poker. Watching movies, TV, and having poker nights with your buddies may make you think you are - but you're probably not. The guys that play poker in the Torn casino, are mostly damn good at it. Be warned.
Misc, Tips and Tricks
Don't be in a rush. Sometimes you can earn more money by waiting and keeing an eye on the market. If someone isn't willing to pay what you want for something, (if that is indeed what it's worth) wait and find someone who will.
Remember the risks! Big risk + small profit = no deal. Big risk + big profit = ... consider it.
If you have more money on you than you are comfortable with, (and your bank account isn't finished yet) you can keep it safe from muggers by putting it in a trade with a friend. Make sure it's someone you trust though, and remember trades are automatically canceled after six hours.
Once you turn level 15, you can start travelling. Fly to other countries and buy items cheaply, and sell them more expensively in Torn. There's especially good money in buying flowers. As a standard, you can carry 5 items. This can be improved by +10 by having a PI with an airstrip and a pilot (you can rent one too), the bonus from working in a cruise liner (+2), Buying small/medium/big suitcases (+2/3/4 respectively (do not stack)), and the faction bonus cumber (up to +10). The maximum amount of items you can bring with all bonuses are 31.
Once you have become a surgeon at the medical job, you can revive people. People are willing to pay anything from 800k and up for a revive keep an eye out in the trade chat. Reviving costs energy though but, the energy cost can be decreased by the faction bonus salutary.
Some people are willing to pay money to have you bust them out of jail.
You can earn money by attacking people and losing. This is called slutting. You won't earn much from it (more the higher level you are) but it's something. If you can attack someone and successfully run away from them, you earn more, as successful runaways are more difficult to pull off.
If you are skilled with graphics, people are willing to pay surprisingly much money for signatures, profile pictures and logos. Make sure you know more than copy pasting first though, please?- You can also earn quite a bit from mugging other people. Keep in mind though, you'll earn less for each consecutive mugging, so wait a bit between each time you mug the same person. 1 day seems to work fine for me, though it could be more or less for the optimal result. Could anyone chip in on this? Mugging target can be difficult to come by. Try to find inactive accounts. You can also buy lists of mugging targets from the forum/trade chat, though they are mostly very common targets, and are thus almost always either poor and/or always in hospital.
Also, one more thing... It's for sale. Not for sell. For. Sale. Yes, that is directed at you, trade chat.
Questions or comments? Post below!