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Cargo And Trading

Trading is a stalwart of every space pilot. Buy cargo from one space station and sell it for a higher price at another, the principle is simple and large profits can be made this way but like any form of trading there is some financial risk involved.

The Q-DEK commodities index is the economic brain of the Flatspace nerve cluster. Many stocks are listed on the index and almost all space stations permit trading. In the free market economy of Flatspace, no goods are illegal to trade.

Space stations in the Flatspace galaxy are living towns and factories. Most stations have some form of industry and often require certain types of goods to produce other types of goods. Cargo is divided into approximate groups to make it easy to determine what types of cargo a station needs and what types of cargo it supplies. The categories are mineral, agricultural, light industrial, heavy industrial and technological.

If a trading scanner is fitted to your ship, scan a base to view the imports and exports. Pilots without trading scanners may use judgement or luck to trade. High quantity, low price cargo is generally an export and low quantity, high price cargo is generally an import.

The Q-DEK is a fluid system and prices can fluctuate. Some stocks are more volatile than others. A good trader can make a profit even when bucking the trend of buying exports and selling imports. Pricing information is generally provided by the trading manager including the current price, current growth and the past average price. Note that just because something was historically expensive, it doesn't mean it will be expensive again in future.

Cargo is loaded aboard your vessel in Staytite cargo pods, small shiny tetrahedrons containing at most 5t of goods. The goal of any space pirate is to get those pods and sell the contents.

Stock prices can go down as well as up. Your ship is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan secured against it. The Q-DEK is part of the galactic financial services authority.