Market Discussions

Trying to delve a little deeper into trading income so I can spend more time whelping ships. I'm wondering what are some good directions to go in to really flesh out a trading operation, so I've got some questions

Territory - What's a good size for high sec?

I've worked two trading hubs (Jita / Rens) and their surrounding regions, but never gave consideration to branch out beyond that. Since we can't cyno stuff conveniently, we're trapped in the system-to-system method of travel, so adding on another trade hub and its surrounding regions adds more overhead to logistics (traveling salesman problems). Is covering one or two trading hubs fairly normal, or are people more 'global' and cover all 4 factions?

Volume - Does size matter?

Are there any distinct differences working high-volume versus low-volume markets? For example, sticking with ammo trading versus ship trading - 1 unit of ammo is sold much more often than 1 ship. Given that the profit margins are initially the same, and both have markets to exploit (certain ships sold near low-sec, ammo sold near mission running sites), does the volume traded affect price stability?

Game changes and empire-crippling patch notes

Crucible brought us a ton of changes and new additions. How much do experience traders put into new tech and additions, or old stuff cast into a new light? Is there a safe or typical amount (as a percentage your overall wealth) of speculation with regards to things involving patch notes? In addition, how willing might you be to invest in the new additions that you couldn't necessarily speculate on before they were actually added to the game?

Credibility

I've been juggling the idea of a loan. I don't really have anything to put in escrow, because being on the low-end of skill points, the ships and things I have are generally being used. If I do have something expensive, it's probably being used a lot (e.g., a decent mission ship), so putting it in escrow would actually lead to an opportunity loss?

How might I gain access to loans while ensuring security for the loaner at this stage of the game without gimping my other activities? Would a micro-loan scheme work at my level, minimizing the risk to the loaner while letting me get the same amount over time in installments (and establishing faith with the loaner), while also granting profit back over time?

Sharing is caring?

I find it hard to rationalize being in any kind of trading corp or channel, and share information. IMO, the tools available to us in game and out mean that it's pretty easy to find info (at least in high sec). I don't actually have any reason to give information away, and charging for it seems dodgy. The same is true for asking for specific information. This kind of sucks since EVE is much more enjoyable as a social game. Do trading aspects work in a corp, and if so, how?

tl;dr questions
What's a good size territory to trade over?
Any difference between high-volume and low-volume markets over time, given that profit margins are initially the same?
Do patch changes and dev blogs play a big factor in your operations?
How could I secure loans without having expensive assets lying around?
Do trade corps work?

If you really want to start with trading, and make tons of ISK's. You need to buy 2 plexes (30 dollars) that will give you 950M
From here its gets easy. Make a monopoly, create a margin trading trap. and wait. Couple of days later billions will come to your way automaticly and legal! There is now way to make better money then this.

If you want to go a different way, when you find posts that say: "buy cheap sell expensive" that wont work. You need to buy expensive and sell more expensive. If you buy cheap and sell expensive, the amount of time needed to adjust the market orders against the bots will give you RSI and you will find out that running a mission gives you more money then adjusting your buy orders.

Good Luck!