I would like to get a general description of how trade XP is calculated. I was experimenting with some trades and here is what happened:

1. Bought organic solvents at about 850 cr/cu. Sold them at a huge loss at about 620 cr/cu. Trade XP: +136.

2. Bought civilian textiles at about 430 cr/cu. Sold at a profit at about 510 cr/cu. Trade XP: 0.

Now in #1, the solvents were on the Items in Demand list where I sold them, so it seems even if you lose money you still gain XP if the items are in "demand." I use quotes because this is extremely artificial. If a commodity is in high demand its price should be quite high -- certainly not lower than stations where it is not in demand! Conversely, the textiles were not on the Items in Demand list, so it seems that even if you make a profit you get no XP if it's not on the list. This is equally bothersome because moving goods from where they're sold at low prices to where they're bought at high prices ought to be fulfilling demand. But it's not counted that way. Very frustrating.

I agree with you in principle, but just because a product is in demand does not mean that you are guaranteed to make a profit. Take for example a station that normally pays 10c for water. If in demand, you could get double the price. Now, if you happened to buy water at a location where they typically charge 30c for water, then yes, you will still take a loss. At least you got experience for bringing the product in demand to the station, despite the hit to your profits.

I could be wrong here but I belive the xp gains is based on the number of "cu" that you trade to the stations. Not the specific type of cargo.

Take mining for instance, with a Centaur I usually make 300+ trade per unload, same goes for when I take a whole load of cargo from one station to the next on a trade mission. Experiment and see for yourselves.

Trade Xp gain works as follows.

Each cargo in the universe has a "rarity" that is how much XP it is worth per item.

You get XP anytime you deliver an item to a station that it isn't sold at, the price it sells for there makes no difference.

This was added mostly because people were complaining that trading outside of a mission gave you no trade XP. The whole system needs to be redone somehow, and i'm sure when the devs have time it will be dealt with. Heck it might even be in the next patch since: (quote from news page)
"-The next update will focus mainly on gameplay rebalancing and tweaking of existing game content.-"

Thanks Spellcast, that was the answer I was looking for.

I'm also guessing you weren't making a profit on the run because someone else exploited the heck out of it already, as it was published across the universe.

I'd really like to see Station (or nation of station) specific trade reports, because as an Itani I'm not gonna be running cargo to Sol-II.

>I'd really like to see Station (or nation of station) specific trade reports, because as an Itani I'm not gonna be running cargo to Sol-II.<

I totally agree with you on this. Would also help with forcing people to explore new systems that they normally would not.

lowguppy: No, I was intentionally selling at a loss to see what would happen viz. trading XP. Making money on trading is pretty straightforward. It's the experience part that is screwy.

Hopefully as Spellcast said this will get fixed soon.