I've found the most effective routes for me aren't preplanned trips, but knowing several effective one way trips and stringing them together. For instance, if you find yourself in Cambridge, you know you can take Beryllium, Luxury Food, or VIPs, depending on your particular ship and affiliation, all for good profit.
Tripoli - Omicron Gamma - Water
Leon - Omicron 41 - Artifacts
Beaumont - Texas - Slaves
Casablanca - Omega-47 - Diamonds
Planet Kyushu - Kyushu - Niobium
Leipzig Station - Dresden - Cobalt
Planet Honshu - Honshu - Plutonium
Tripoli - Omicron Gamma - Water
Just started out from Leon and looked what was the base with the highest profit excepting NY and Houston, only made changes to the plan from Mull to Tripoli and Tripoli to Leon:P. The traveling is long but it does give you pretty much profit:P(I Hate docking with and Adv Train) And I don't use Chugoku (totally random generated it was just made for fun in the start but am actually running it now:D)
The real trick to making big bux trading is knowing when to stop.
Maybe taking (for example) niobium from the Taus to say, Manhattan
pays 1100, but stopping and selling at Kensington get you 900 for it
and taking Beryllium to Planet LA makes you over 300 for driving not
as far and the little difference in the price of Boron for the return is
negligible too. A shorter run of 3 systems that pays 850 is WAY better
than going 5 systems for only 200 more. You'd be surprised how much
difference it can make. More is not always better. Quicker is really more.
Might be, but it takes ages to dock an Adv. Train, and buying/selling things takes up time as well, but that route I made was really to look what where the most paying routes and just discovering big parts of Sirius:P
Anybody point me to a tutorial on Cargo Pods... i cannot work them out. Lost 2 grey pods off my frieghter but it makes no difference? and now I can't see pods on any buy menu at bases where they were?
or;
Treat this as a dumb Noobie question and answer it
i just do the average trade routes, Engine components and berilyium, but i never do the Diomon/Niobium...too make taxers, you loose money not make it there.
I do a heavily modified version of Del's route, which only passes through sigma 13 once.
Im gonna go ahead and put it here, otherwise i'll forget it myself soon.
Starting from planet Cambridge.
Planet Cambridge to Planet Baden Baden with Prisoners
Planet Baden Baden to Planet Stuttgart with... something that makes profit (dont run empty)
Planet Stuttgart to Luxury Liner Hawaii with Luxury Food
Luxury Liner Hawaii to Beaumont base with Artifacts
Beaumont base to Casablanca base with Slaves
Casablanca base to Gran Canaria with Diamonds
Gran Canaria to Planet Honshu with Deuterium (note, I dont go through Bretonia)
Planet Honshu to Mull base with Plutonium
Mull base to Planet California with Gold (I think...)
Planet California to LD-14 with Boron
LD-14 to Planet Malta with MOX
Planet Malta to Planet Nuremburg with Cardimine
Planet Nuremburg to Freeport 9 with Engine components
Freeport 9 to Planet Cambridge with Alien Organisms
Its a great run, and while you can run into hiccups with the local law enforcement (Bretonia in particular, since the Liberty types stick to New York), it keeps me much more interested in trading than your regular 2 to 4 stop run. A good share of... contraband in there too, to liven your day. Going through Sigma 13 once can't be helped, but at least its not with Diamonds eh? I'll leave you to find the safest/fastest routes out there.
most profitable run I'vefound is
NB-Honshu-Malta-NB and again:)a.k.a cobalt-engine parts-cardamine
yes it is smugling but I can earn with 3000 cargo prison liner same money in almost same time as adv.train with 5000 cargo space on diamond-niobium run. Since I am in RP slaver I use this run only when I need a lot of money quickly as is posible ... normaly I do Huston-Malta and back which give me fair profit in fair time but it is less than previous run.