A. Sell-Steal-Move (Or SSMing): This method is the basic method of earning credits for Evil traders. You MUST be Evil to do this. To use this method you need to have a ship and some Exp. points or you will be getting busted a lot! A safe number of Exp. points is determined by this formula:

Holds x 35 = number of exp. points needed. You can go as low as 30 but you are increasing your risk of a bust. There is a built in chance for a bust so you are never 100% assured of getting away with stealing. The basic method is to start with a load of Equ. in your holds over a port that is buying equ. and is next to another port that is also buying equ.

These are called "Evil Pairs" You then port and sell your Equ. Do NOT buy other products unless you are using a jettison method of earning extra exp. points. (See the haggling for points section of this file.) You then port again and steal back your Equ. You MUST now move to another port that buys Equ. and repeat the selling and stealing process before moving back to the first port. You can find a large number of "Evil Pairs" in the game if you look for them. The best ships to use this method in are the Low turn ships like the Merchant Freighter or the Cargo Tran. Your spending most of your Turns in movement and this prevents you from earn as many credits as other methods.

The loop looks like this: 8 turn loop in a 2 turn ship

1. Port and sell Equ.

2. Port and Steal Equ

3. Move to port that is adjacent

4. Port and sell Equ.

5. Port and Steal Equ

6. Move back to First Port

7. Repeat until busted.
 
You shouldn't run SSM more than one day, and usually not even that long. 100 turns of SSM should give you enough money to buy a second freighter, and once you can afford it, there isn't much reason to keep using the less effective SSM method of money-making. (TW-FIDO, Stephen Whitis, 06/27/96).
 
I beg to differ with this since I've played with a corp that used this technique quite effectively. SSMing wasn't the only way we were making money--just one of the ways. In one section of our SST bubble area, we created two xxS ports next to each other and upgraded them to their maximum levels. Next, we used Coltrans to buy up all the equipment at both ports and load them on our citadels in the same sectors. Finally, at the end of our turns from SSTing, we would transport into a Scout Marauder and SSM between the two xxS ports. We would alternate this pattern every day until all the credits were gone. We could average about 300,000 to 1 MIL credits each before getting busted. I've made as much as 2-3 MIL before getting busted. (DMD, 9/25/97)