Freelancer

"You...all of you...
why couldn't you
be dealing drugs
like normal people?"

Trading Hints

Speed things up by docking quickly (ie. only use the autopilot to send you in the right direction then switch it off until the last minute).

Use as little equipment as possible (reducing radiation & other damage costs)

Improve the weak bits of your routes with train bashing (below) and occasionally kill easy criminals to keep your rep straight.

Fly a Dromedary. It is WAAAAAAAAY better than anything else.

Visit every base so you know what things are worth everywhere (particularly for train bashing)

Train Bashing

KUSARI:
Diamonds, Artefacts, Light Arms, Luxury Consumer Goods, Jump Gate Parts, Gold, Silver, Beryllium, Luxury Food, Cardamine, Cobalt.

SIGMA:
Alien Organisms, Construction Machinery, Luxury Consumer Goods, Luxury Food

RHEINLAND:
Gold, Optronics, Super Alloy, Artefacts, Jump Gate Parts, Beryllium, Cardamine, Niobium, Superconductors, Luxury Consumer Goods.

OMEGA:
Jump Gate Parts, Engine Components, Light Arms (Omega-3 & Omega-7 tend to be good for eng. comp, gold, niobium etc en route from Cambridge to Stuttgart).

BRETONIA:
Alien Org, Diamonds, Optronics, Luxury Consumer Goods, Engine Components, High Temp Alloy, Cardamine, Artefacts, Jump Gate Parts, Boron.

LIBERTY:
Lux Food, Beryllium, Eng. Comp, Gold, Cardamine, Artefacts, Alien Org, Optronics, Silver.

There may be more but this should cover most stuff worth 800 credits or more. Once you've collected it you can check where is best to land. The TAU systems are good for nothing, the EDGE worlds are good for trading and fighting but there are no trains.