Economy Ware Trading
Economy wares are wares that are produced and consumed in the economy by ships and stations. They are transported across large distances by cargo ships. Note that these wares cannot be transported by your ship, and are only traded between other ships and stations.
You need to own and designate a cargo ship to trade in these wares. This designation is done for every trade.
It is possible to queue a number of trades for each of your transport ships. While this number is very limited by default, there is software available that can increase the number of trades that can be queued for each of your trading ships.
Initiating Economy Ware Trading is done via the Trade Menu.
Default Controls:
Keyboard: Shift-T
Other Controllers: By Accessing the Sidebar
Keep in mind that, before you can start trading with a station, you first have to know what that station wants as well as what it's selling. To do this, you have to fly close to the station to find their trade offers. These show in your HUD as icons on the surface of the station.
A snapshot of the trade offers that you find are saved in your ship's computer, but this snapshot only applies to the offers at the time you found them! You are therefore not aware of any changes in these trade offers.
It is possible, however, to get a trader in a station to work for you as a trade agent, sending you updated information. To do this, you have to dock at a station and get to know the inhabitants of that station better by engaging in some small talk. When you successfully defend a station, the station's manager will, on occasion, contact you and voluntarily offer to send you trade updates, acting as your trade agent at that station.
Inventory Ware Trading
Inventory wares are small items that can be carried in your ship. Trade in these items is always on a per-item basis.
Inventory Ware Trading can be initiated by contacting one of many Inventory Traders. Such trade can be done remotely, via the Comm Link (see section on Interaction for more details), or face-to-face after docking at a station.