Trading Terms and Definitions

Different people sometimes use the same terms to mean different things. For traders it can be confusing understanding exactly what someone means by terms like "Station Trading" or "Regional Trading".

Station Trading

The strictest definition and the one I use is trading on a single station, using station range buy orders only and reselling on the same station. There is no need to travel, the trader typically never leaves the station other than to update his clone or buy a skill-book he needs to train.

Having said that, I often use 1 or 2 jump buy orders instead of station orders on characters I more or less consider to be station traders. However I will specify that's the case when talking about them.

Most others use a similar definition for station trading though some use it to refer to trade on any station within the same region and that can cause quite a bit of confusion.

A few even use it to mean any and all transactions made through market orders regardless of location. To them market orders are on stations therefore market order = station trading. They use the term Station Trading simply to differentiate between market trading and trades deals made in chat and/or through contracts. They don't seem to be primarily traders though, they're industrialists and others who are only peripherally involved in market trading as a means to an end in support of their main business rather than as their main business.

A grey area is buying at greater ranges and reselling on the station it was bought at without any travel or transport involved. Some consider that straight Station Trading too.

Regional Trading

Trading within a single region. Buying throughout the region and reselling within the same region. Usually involves transporting items from less traveled systems to one of the larger hubs within the region.

This is the definition I use and one of the bigger sources of confusion. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on the usage of the term. Some use it the way I do while others use it to refer to the trade between different regions (what I think of as Inter Regional or Haul Trading).

Again the grey area is if you're buying throughout the region and reselling everything where it was bought without travel or transport, some consider that Station Trading rather than Regional Trading.

Inter Regional Trading

Buying items in one region and reselling them in another. Involves travel and/or transport from one region to another and usually at least one trading character in each region.

Not everyone uses this term but when it is used it always seems to mean the same thing. I never saw it used until I started using it myself.

I used to refer to this as Haul Trading until I realized that was kind of ambiguous and could easily be confused with the hauling and transport involved in Regional Trading.

Or maybe it's just me

Or maybe I'm the one who's confusing terms. Maybe I'm using Regional Trade to mean something different than most others. Maybe I should change my usage and start using Regional Trading to refer to the trade between different regions rather than the trade within a single region.

What do you think?