What I've learned after 10 hours trading in ED

1. Masark's guide is awesome.

2. Nearly all 1-hop loops have a high-profit leg and a low-profit leg

2b. You can increase your profits on the low-profit leg of your loop by looking for missions to and from your low-profit leg

For example: -Take a "industry needs <x>" mission from your high-profit source location that can be purchased at your high-profit delivery location, round it out with your low-profit commodity -Take a delivery mission at your low-profit station to your high-profit station and round out with your low-profit commodity -Before unloading your high-profit commodity at your delivery station, look for any "industry needs" missions at the delivery station. Occasionally I'll be delivering Imperial Slaves as a commodity and see an "industry needs" mission for a 500k reward for only a few units. Since a full Type-7 load is worth around a million, taking this mission with a full hold immediately awards the 500k. Easy money.

Both of these examples can increase the profits of your low-profit leg by hundreds of thousands, and only add a few seconds of extra time at each end to check availability

3. Trading in ED is incredibly relaxing

3b. Have a nice glass of whiskey to sip while you trade

4. Get a landing computer so you can maximize #3

5. Escaping interdiction isn't terribly hard and is way faster than submitting and escaping

6. Close station distance is more important than profit per ton most of the time

7. If you're grinding for ships it's usually more effective to stick to your current route until you have enough money to upgrade, rather than change loop mid-run. You lose more in time than you gain in profit, especially if you're within a few million of your current goal

I'll add more as I learn, love this game!