MetalancA
2008-10-13 19:07:19
MetalancA's
ULTIMATE MERCHANTING GUIDE!
!UPDATED!
Updated 11/5/08! - I added more graphs of technical, fundamental, and speculation trades, as well as a "set merchanting" section.
Introduction: Hi everyone, I decided to make a runescape merchanting guide for a few reasons. One, I don't have time to learn how to script, so I thought I'd give something back to the community with this guide. Two, I've made a lawt of money using this method, while only playing the game about 5 minutes a day. Without further ramblings, here we go!
IMPORTANT LINK: http://itemdb-rs.runescape.com/frontpage.ws
It is important you check the graphs of items you merchant. If you buy an item not knowing that it's in a price divebomb, you may just end up looking like this: :eek: as well as :mad: and don't forget :(
For those of you who are total noobs, here's a little map of the "G.E" :p
The Three Types Of Merchanting:
The tital says it all! Yes, there are three types of merchanting on runescape. Unfortunately, all of them require some money. You've probably heard this a hundred times, but "You have to have money to make money". If you're thinking, "How the hell am I supposed to make money in the first place then?" Don't ask me, I don't even KNOW! :p
1. Fundamental Trading
First of all, when I say "Fundamental trading", I mean trading an item with a horizontal graph. (It's real meaning however, is used in the stock market, meaning you buy stock depending on whether the company is growing or not.)
In runescape, it just means you merchant an item that has two out of two things:
1. has a horizontal graph, like dis:
2. is on the "Most Traded Items List" Found Here: http://itemdb-rs.runescape.com/top100.ws?list=0&scale=0
There's also one thing that you always need while merchanting, and things can get pretty confusing without it.
A calculator! You always want to have a calculator around while merchanting so you can determine your profit, loss, and what % you make on the trade.
Ok, I'll give you an example of a fundamental trade by merching cannonballs. Notice that the graph
is not entirely horizontal. I still can trade this fundamentally because of three things:
1. The price movements are going very slow for that item, meaning the price may only go up or down a few gp a day.
2. It has a wide price margin of 18gp (as of 10/12/08) so you can buy quite a bit below the market price, and sell quite a bit higher.
3. The price is going up. You NEVER want to merchant an item that's price is going down. In a few days I wouldn't want to merchant this item fundamentally (as of 10/12/08) because the price would even off, then drop.
It's STRONGLY RECCOMENDED that you buy the items you're trading fundamentally in bulk
I'll give you another example of a good fundamental trade, this time I'll merchant Maple logs. These are a very good fundamental trade, because it meets all of the fundamental trade "requirements", having a horizontal graph line, and being near the top of the "most traded items" list.
Since there isn't much of a price margin, I'll buy at minimum, and sell at market price. I would then buy at 36, and sell 37. Wait, that's only 1gp per log! :duh: Contrarywise (making up words is phun), I would buy 100-200k of them, making my profit 100-200k.You never want to buy at market price and sell at maximum price.
Here's another example of a fundamental trade. It's also on the most traded items list. The graph is leveling off, and will either continue to keep going horizontally, or will go up. Either way you can trade it fundamentally.
Using your calculator to determine what price to buy at:
Using a calculator while merchanting is very helpful when keeping track of your trades. It also helps you determine your buy and sell prices. When trading fundamentally, it's usually best to buy 2.5% below the market price, and 2.5% above it. Thus making 5% profit on your trades. For example, if the market price for cannonballs is 196, I would multiply 196 by .025 on my calculator, and get 4.9 (Rounded to 5). This makes my buy point 191, and my sell point 201.
I would then make 10gp per cannonball. Seems small, right? wrong :p
As I said before, it's a good idea to buy fundamental items in bulk. thus, if i bought 50,000 cannonballs, I would make 500k on that trade :eek: This would require 9.5m, but as I also said before, you have to have money to make money :p
2. Technical Trading
This is where merchanting gets phun :stirthepot:.
Technical Trading: Basically, Technical Trading is buying an item because of graph patterns of that item. If you know about technical trading, you can look at an item graph, and determine whether the item price is going to go up, or down. Sounds bad ass right? YUP!
If you're thinking "Wut? Rs st00f has patterns?" Yes, in fact, there are solid buy and sell signals in the item graphs.
Ok let's get started:
First off, technical trading is pretty much the opposite of Fundamental trading. Fundamental trading relys on a solid horizontal graph, where you buy for a bit under, and sell for a bit over. Technical trading however, depends on graphs that are wavy and moving around a lot.
What technical trading boils down to, is buying an item at a buy point, waiting for the price to go up on that item, then selling it. It's a lot riskyer than fundamental trading, so 9 out of 10 of your trades should be fundamental.
Buy and Sell points
Without further ramblings,
A buy point is when the daily average crosses the 5 day average.
Here's some examples of buy and sell points.
This is a great example of a technical trade. The blue circle shows a strong buy point, while the red circle shows a strong sell point.
Another example would be this:
Again, the blue represents the buy point, and the red represents the sell point. Rune scimitars are a great item to trade technically, as they have wave like graph patterns. I merchant these succesfully buy buying bulk, at market price, when there's a buy point and selling a few hundred gp over market price. They sell in a day or two, and there's virtually no risk.
Here's another classic technical trade. What's very interesting about this graph, is that the price dramatically drops right before the buy point. When the price drops before the buy signal, I know that the price is going to go up a lot more than a normal technical trade. I personally made over 600k on these, and only invested 3.5M.
When trading technically, it's advised that you buy the item at market price, and sell above. In some cases like the first graph of the regen bracelet, you could even buy at maximum price. If you don't want to risk buying at market, you can try a bit below (not reccomended). Though you'll have a tough job buying that item in bulk, because people will most likely have recognized the buy point, and will already put in orders at market or above for that item. :spot:
3. Speculation Trading
:spot: :spot: :spot:
Speculation is the last of the three types of merchanting, and it can make you the most money. It also has the most RISK.
The actual definition of speculation (per dicitonary.com) is:
In runescape however, "speculation trading" (coined by yours truely) it means buying an item due to recent events affecting that affect that item. For instance, lets say Jagex updates runescape making all tree's respawn 5 minutes after you cut them down. Therefore log and bow prices would skyrocket because 1. There is now a huge demand for them, and 2. People recognize this demand, and stock up on them; making an even bigger demand! Of course, Jagex would never do anything like that, but you get the idea :p
I'll give you an example of a speculation trade:
At the beginning of October, Jagex announced that they would release PVP worlds in the month of October. And, as you can imagine, all the items most commonly used in PVP skyrocketed, which include:
Strength amulet:
As you can see, at the beginning of October, when the update was announced, the price of strength amulets rose quite a bit. This is also considered a technical trade, because it has buy and sell points (Once again shown in blue and red.)
Super strength potion:
Also very commonly used in PVP. (Got lazy with the red and blue circles lol)
Super attack:
Shark:
Rune arrow:
As you can see, all five items are used very commonly in PVP, and all of the prices went up around the same time. Coincedence? Please, don't make me roflmfao. Those are speculation trades. Speculation trades are rarer than technical and fundamental. But you can make a lot more money. Keep your eyes peeled, and read the updates carefully, there just might be a speculation trade waiting to happen ;).
Merchanting Armour Sets.
There's a fourth way of merchanting, though not always applicable. This fourth way is merchanting armour sets.
Here's a video I found that pretty much sums armour set merchanting up.
Note: THIS IS NOT MY VIDEO!!! I am showing it to you for entertainment and educational puroses only :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoldnjp5Gf0
I know this section is really short, but oh well. Like the video says, it's strongly suggested that you only merchant verac's sets when the price is rising over 30k a day.
Conclusion
Fundamental trade: Item with a horizontal graph and is on the most traded items list.
Technical trade: Item who's graph is such that the daily average line crosses the 5 day average line.
Speculation trade: Item that is affected by a recent or future update.
End Notes
I hope you guys enjoyed my guide, learned a lot and had fun. I'll be adding a FAQ section soon. If you want, I'll add a section about set merchanting in due time; just ask ;). Also, I want to recognize Glen, (youtube account is 'glenthegoalsguy' who's videos got me into merchanting and gave me all of my basics in runescape merchanting. Check out his videos, they're very good :). If you have any questions, feel free to reply or pm me on SRL, i'll be happy to answer them.
Good luck and happy merchanting!
For more information on trading the GE visit http://TheGrandExchange.com
Go to clan chat "Advitica" for merchanting chat. (NOT my clan chat or runescape name)
ULTIMATE MERCHANTING GUIDE!
!UPDATED!
Updated 11/5/08! - I added more graphs of technical, fundamental, and speculation trades, as well as a "set merchanting" section.
Introduction: Hi everyone, I decided to make a runescape merchanting guide for a few reasons. One, I don't have time to learn how to script, so I thought I'd give something back to the community with this guide. Two, I've made a lawt of money using this method, while only playing the game about 5 minutes a day. Without further ramblings, here we go!
IMPORTANT LINK: http://itemdb-rs.runescape.com/frontpage.ws
It is important you check the graphs of items you merchant. If you buy an item not knowing that it's in a price divebomb, you may just end up looking like this: :eek: as well as :mad: and don't forget :(
For those of you who are total noobs, here's a little map of the "G.E" :p
The Three Types Of Merchanting:
The tital says it all! Yes, there are three types of merchanting on runescape. Unfortunately, all of them require some money. You've probably heard this a hundred times, but "You have to have money to make money". If you're thinking, "How the hell am I supposed to make money in the first place then?" Don't ask me, I don't even KNOW! :p
1. Fundamental Trading
First of all, when I say "Fundamental trading", I mean trading an item with a horizontal graph. (It's real meaning however, is used in the stock market, meaning you buy stock depending on whether the company is growing or not.)
In runescape, it just means you merchant an item that has two out of two things:
1. has a horizontal graph, like dis:
2. is on the "Most Traded Items List" Found Here: http://itemdb-rs.runescape.com/top100.ws?list=0&scale=0
There's also one thing that you always need while merchanting, and things can get pretty confusing without it.
A calculator! You always want to have a calculator around while merchanting so you can determine your profit, loss, and what % you make on the trade.
Ok, I'll give you an example of a fundamental trade by merching cannonballs. Notice that the graph
is not entirely horizontal. I still can trade this fundamentally because of three things:
1. The price movements are going very slow for that item, meaning the price may only go up or down a few gp a day.
2. It has a wide price margin of 18gp (as of 10/12/08) so you can buy quite a bit below the market price, and sell quite a bit higher.
3. The price is going up. You NEVER want to merchant an item that's price is going down. In a few days I wouldn't want to merchant this item fundamentally (as of 10/12/08) because the price would even off, then drop.
It's STRONGLY RECCOMENDED that you buy the items you're trading fundamentally in bulk
I'll give you another example of a good fundamental trade, this time I'll merchant Maple logs. These are a very good fundamental trade, because it meets all of the fundamental trade "requirements", having a horizontal graph line, and being near the top of the "most traded items" list.
Since there isn't much of a price margin, I'll buy at minimum, and sell at market price. I would then buy at 36, and sell 37. Wait, that's only 1gp per log! :duh: Contrarywise (making up words is phun), I would buy 100-200k of them, making my profit 100-200k.You never want to buy at market price and sell at maximum price.
Here's another example of a fundamental trade. It's also on the most traded items list. The graph is leveling off, and will either continue to keep going horizontally, or will go up. Either way you can trade it fundamentally.Using your calculator to determine what price to buy at:
Using a calculator while merchanting is very helpful when keeping track of your trades. It also helps you determine your buy and sell prices. When trading fundamentally, it's usually best to buy 2.5% below the market price, and 2.5% above it. Thus making 5% profit on your trades. For example, if the market price for cannonballs is 196, I would multiply 196 by .025 on my calculator, and get 4.9 (Rounded to 5). This makes my buy point 191, and my sell point 201.
I would then make 10gp per cannonball. Seems small, right? wrong :p
As I said before, it's a good idea to buy fundamental items in bulk. thus, if i bought 50,000 cannonballs, I would make 500k on that trade :eek: This would require 9.5m, but as I also said before, you have to have money to make money :p
2. Technical Trading
This is where merchanting gets phun :stirthepot:.
Technical Trading: Basically, Technical Trading is buying an item because of graph patterns of that item. If you know about technical trading, you can look at an item graph, and determine whether the item price is going to go up, or down. Sounds bad ass right? YUP!
If you're thinking "Wut? Rs st00f has patterns?" Yes, in fact, there are solid buy and sell signals in the item graphs.
Ok let's get started:
First off, technical trading is pretty much the opposite of Fundamental trading. Fundamental trading relys on a solid horizontal graph, where you buy for a bit under, and sell for a bit over. Technical trading however, depends on graphs that are wavy and moving around a lot.
What technical trading boils down to, is buying an item at a buy point, waiting for the price to go up on that item, then selling it. It's a lot riskyer than fundamental trading, so 9 out of 10 of your trades should be fundamental.
Buy and Sell points
Without further ramblings,
A buy point is when the daily average crosses the 5 day average.
Here's some examples of buy and sell points.
This is a great example of a technical trade. The blue circle shows a strong buy point, while the red circle shows a strong sell point.
Another example would be this:
Again, the blue represents the buy point, and the red represents the sell point. Rune scimitars are a great item to trade technically, as they have wave like graph patterns. I merchant these succesfully buy buying bulk, at market price, when there's a buy point and selling a few hundred gp over market price. They sell in a day or two, and there's virtually no risk. Here's another classic technical trade. What's very interesting about this graph, is that the price dramatically drops right before the buy point. When the price drops before the buy signal, I know that the price is going to go up a lot more than a normal technical trade. I personally made over 600k on these, and only invested 3.5M.
When trading technically, it's advised that you buy the item at market price, and sell above. In some cases like the first graph of the regen bracelet, you could even buy at maximum price. If you don't want to risk buying at market, you can try a bit below (not reccomended). Though you'll have a tough job buying that item in bulk, because people will most likely have recognized the buy point, and will already put in orders at market or above for that item. :spot:
3. Speculation Trading
:spot: :spot: :spot:
Speculation is the last of the three types of merchanting, and it can make you the most money. It also has the most RISK.
The actual definition of speculation (per dicitonary.com) is:
5. engagement in business transactions involving considerable risk but offering the chance of large gains, esp. trading in commodities, stocks, etc., in the hope of profit from changes in the market price.
In runescape however, "speculation trading" (coined by yours truely) it means buying an item due to recent events affecting that affect that item. For instance, lets say Jagex updates runescape making all tree's respawn 5 minutes after you cut them down. Therefore log and bow prices would skyrocket because 1. There is now a huge demand for them, and 2. People recognize this demand, and stock up on them; making an even bigger demand! Of course, Jagex would never do anything like that, but you get the idea :p
I'll give you an example of a speculation trade:
At the beginning of October, Jagex announced that they would release PVP worlds in the month of October. And, as you can imagine, all the items most commonly used in PVP skyrocketed, which include:
Strength amulet:
As you can see, at the beginning of October, when the update was announced, the price of strength amulets rose quite a bit. This is also considered a technical trade, because it has buy and sell points (Once again shown in blue and red.)Super strength potion:
Also very commonly used in PVP. (Got lazy with the red and blue circles lol)Super attack:
Shark:
Rune arrow:
As you can see, all five items are used very commonly in PVP, and all of the prices went up around the same time. Coincedence? Please, don't make me roflmfao. Those are speculation trades. Speculation trades are rarer than technical and fundamental. But you can make a lot more money. Keep your eyes peeled, and read the updates carefully, there just might be a speculation trade waiting to happen ;).
Merchanting Armour Sets.
There's a fourth way of merchanting, though not always applicable. This fourth way is merchanting armour sets.
Here's a video I found that pretty much sums armour set merchanting up.
Note: THIS IS NOT MY VIDEO!!! I am showing it to you for entertainment and educational puroses only :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xoldnjp5Gf0
I know this section is really short, but oh well. Like the video says, it's strongly suggested that you only merchant verac's sets when the price is rising over 30k a day.
Conclusion
Fundamental trade: Item with a horizontal graph and is on the most traded items list.
Technical trade: Item who's graph is such that the daily average line crosses the 5 day average line.
Speculation trade: Item that is affected by a recent or future update.
End Notes
I hope you guys enjoyed my guide, learned a lot and had fun. I'll be adding a FAQ section soon. If you want, I'll add a section about set merchanting in due time; just ask ;). Also, I want to recognize Glen, (youtube account is 'glenthegoalsguy' who's videos got me into merchanting and gave me all of my basics in runescape merchanting. Check out his videos, they're very good :). If you have any questions, feel free to reply or pm me on SRL, i'll be happy to answer them.
Good luck and happy merchanting!
For more information on trading the GE visit http://TheGrandExchange.com
Go to clan chat "Advitica" for merchanting chat. (NOT my clan chat or runescape name)