What I’ve Learned in Six Months of Trading for Profit in EVE Online
If you’ve found yourself here, you probably have at least the following two questions:
- What skills do I need?
- Will I make back the ISK I spent on the monthly subscription for EVEGuru?
TL;DR: Yes—you will easily profit more than the subscription cost if you’re smart about it.
I recommend training trading skills to at least level 4, and if you’re doing regional trading, being able to fly a Deep Space Transport (DST) and having an alt account to scout is ideal.
This is from about two weeks of trading. The EVEGuru modules launched April 25th, and the last day I hauled any items was May 6th. All I used was a DST and about 6b in capital. I have ~7b left in sell orders still posted. All in around 12 days total.
What Skills Do You Need?
The skills you need will depend on the type of trading you want to pursue. I’m far from an expert in EVE Online, but I believe trading is probably one of the least skill point-intensive ways to make ISK. If you have the capital to start, you can begin making ISK on day one as an Alpha clone by station trading in Jita.
And yes, if you’re even moderately smart with how you use EVEGuru, you will make back your subscription cost—whether you’re doing station or regional trading.
Types of Trading
The two main types of trading I’ll reference here are the ones supported by EVEGuru: Station Trading and Regional Trading.
Station Trading
Station trading involves staying in a station (usually Jita), placing buy and sell orders, and profiting from the margin. You don’t need any skills to start doing this, but training Accounting, Broker Relations, and Advanced Broker Relations will noticeably increase your profitability.
You’ll also be limited by the number of orders you can place, so investing in Trade, Retail, Wholesale, and eventually Tycoon is important as you grow.
If you have only one account, this is the type of trading I recommend starting with.
Regional Trading
Regional trading involves buying items in one region and moving them to another—usually buying from sell orders in hubs like Hek, Rens, Dodixie, or Amarr, and selling them in Jita for a profit.
This method carries significantly more risk than station trading. In station trading, your biggest risk is typically market fluctuation—or maybe fat-fingering a few extra zeroes when listing compressed ore (seriously, get Advanced Broker Relations V).
In contrast, regional trading carries the added risk of losing your entire cargo if your hauler is destroyed. There are ways to mitigate this risk (which I’ll cover in a future post), but the most effective method by far is using a scout on a second account.
Recommended Skills for Regional Trading
- Be able to fly your preferred Deep Space Transport (DST).
- Know how to MWD-Cloak trick to escape dangerous situations.
- Having a scout is essential.
You can do regional trading in a basic T1 hauler or even a T1 exploration frigate if you don’t mind the risk. With proper scouting, you can avoid most dangerous encounters. My main scout is a day-one clone flying a shuttle. You can also fly a T1 exploration frigate on a new account, which makes this method accessible with minimal SP—but you’ll still need two accounts and some starting capital.
Final Thoughts
You can make a ton of ISK trading wisely—and it doesn’t take a lot of skill points to do it. I started with about 6 billion ISK in capital, made 11 billion in profit in two weeks, and still have 7 billion ISK worth of sell orders listed. That was with under six hours of actual playtime—mostly just flying a DST.
If you’ve found this information useful, feel free to use my EVEGuru promo code “KOINAH” for 20% off your first month’s subscription.
