Trading Questions

I've read some guides on trading but there's nothing really geared towards newcomers so I had some questions.

I really want to break into trading and start making money that way. I play this a lot after work and I think trading seems to be the best way to get money if you can actually put time into the game each day. I have maybe 2 million capital if I sell some stuff. Is this enough to start trading? What should I trade? What items/categories should I avoid because the volume is too low? What items sell fast and are feasible for me to trade? I'm mostly looking at the bazaar - market split and if it's in the 100,000s buying it and immediately putting it back on the market but this seems a bit rare to see, and so far no one's bought anything I've re-placed on the market. Would anyone be willing to help train me in this area of the game, and possibly give me a loan if what I have isn't enough to get started? I really want to put a lot of effort into this area. Thanks. Sarah

Have a look at:
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#!p=threads&f=61&t=15927232&b=0&a=0
and
https://www.torn.com/forums.php?p=threads&f=61&t=15938766&b=0&a=0

You're married to a level 70 with a networth of 14+ billion, I'd say that's a good place to start when looking for a loan :)

Here is a another wall of text that contains another person's opinion on reaching your first billion

http://www.torn.com/forums.php?p=threads&f=61&t=15955687&b=0&a=0

Thanks but I've read both of those guides already.

And I'm not sure if I should ask my mate, he was nice enough to let me share the island I don't want to put him off

You can use this as a concept. The prices shown are now out of date, but the methodology still works:
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#!p=threads&f=61&t=15964140&b=0&a=0

The main idea is to determine the profit per hour of travel time. Xanax in South Africa might be at a great price, but if you have to fly for half the day just to get it, then you won't make much profit per hour.

Use this site to see what's in stock and for how much (note that the site doesn't show a few items, such as armor in Japan and South Africa) http://travelrun.torncentral.com/index.php

Make sure the item is in stock before you fly!

Then check the Torn bazaar to see how much items are selling for. If Red Fox Plushies are $1,000 in the UK and sell for $51,0000 in the Torn bazaar, then your profit per plushie is $50,000.

Multiply that by your max carry. If you can carry 20 items, then your profit for one load of red fox plushies is $1M if you sell them at the bazaar.

To get profit per hour, divide $1M by the number of hours in a round-trip flight. For example, if you have PI travel, then round trip to UK is 3 hours and 42 minutes, or about 3.7 hours. So your $1M profit is worth $270,270 per hour of travel time. (If using standard travel, remember to also subtract the price of your airline ticket from your profits).

Using profit per hour, you can compare profit between different destinations and pick the ones best suited to your needs.

She can't travel...

Trading is dead.. You will get mugged right after, you sell something + the people who have billions and are higher level than you will overtake you no matter what.

Nobody likes to admit it but it is true

Ask people like Kinzove, ralucakiss84, -Asc3nt- ... off the top of my head ... all relatively young and made their considerable fortunes from mostly trading and bazaars. There are many others, I'm not a big trader so I don't know the others. But trading isn't dead, it just takes massive activity. Blood Bags and ghost trades (and brains) can go a long way to protecting a dedicated trader from mugging.

I think if you took a poll, more people would pick "Mugging is dead" than "Trading is dead".

I missed that. If she can't travel, best thing would be to use Hank's method for hitting level 15. However, if the goal is to trade immediately, then focus on consumables. Buying 100 bottles of beer or one of the plushies from the Torn shops and reselling them will make you some money quickly, but not a lot.

The problem with get-rich-quick items like DPs and FHCs is they are also get-mugged-quick items. It's rare to get a buy-and-mug on beer sales or plushies. It's better to stick with items of lower overall value until you have the stats to protect your capital.

I agree, trading is far from dead.

Now that you can blacklist players that mug you after a trade or bazaar sell, you have a little bit of come back. Another strategy is just make sure you have somewhere to store your cash, and make sure you are the person to end the trade. This way you can just wait a few minutes, end the trade, and store your cash before they have a chance of mugging you.

All in all tho, the poster should look to getting to level 15 first and foremost. Once they hit level 15, that opens up a whole new market of profits for themselves that will earn them far more that trying to trade of a limited cash source.

Is it possible to pay a high level to lose to me so I can level up quickly? Does that work at all

It does but that will be trick to find

It will be easier for u to attack high lvl people and leave them but will need better stats first

Just trade cheap, consumable items like meds or bottles.

Winning defends gives a tiny percentage of the experience gained from winning attacks, though still greater than 0. They did that specifically so people couldn't level up using only money.

Use Hank's guide to level up quickly to 15, and then do some traveling to get money for trading. In the meantime get the ability to self-hosp using the wrong type of blood bags. Sacrifice a goat to the RNG gods so you don't become a universal recipient when you fill your first bag of blood.

Neither mugging nor trading is dead, they actually need each other as much of the trading is based on people's fear of getting mugged when they sell something.

Great point, and a good trader will build a name for himself as someone who does NOT mug, then will usually get offered deals at (slightly) lower prices for that reputation, allowing him to make more money and build that reputation further.

Y'all are fooling yourself. I wanna see you live as a 100k stat noob with 5 mil to his name for a week lets see how you do. Plus massive activity ? You say it like torn is my life , bro get real.

The only viable source of income is gambling or flying. If you can't gamble, well then...

This is (just) a suggestion to earn some cash,
so why not try blood bags for income?
If you sell them in bulk at a reasonable price
(and that your blood type is common),
you might earn your 1st million.
Of course you must try earning enough to buy one,
and then use the money earned to buy more (empty blood bags)

You don't have to follow this method if you prefer to.
I'm sure there are more ways to make money
that can be more suitable for you.