Losing credits somewhere

['01Vette]

I have miners out there trading and I see they are bringing in the credits and I see the increase in my balance, but over a period of time, I'm not seeing an overall increase. I watched my balance drop by about 300K and can't figure out why. Nothing noted in the log book why it was removed. Is there any reason why this should happen? Is there a recurring fee for marines and crews that you hire?

[Invasion]

Do you also have cargo ships on autotrade or distribute wares?

['01Vette]

I have one trader on auto-trade duty for a specific ware and 5 miners, again for specific wares. Once I was aware something was amiss, I watched my balance for a bit and saw about 350K credits get removed and there was no note in the log to explain why. The game would benefit from a simple account manager to see where the money is coming and going.

[cTrix]

You are correct in that it is strange that costs aren't logged. What you should be able to see is your traders profits, factoring in the buy price. However what is most likely happening to you is that your trader is buying goods on debit, and trying to sell them on old information, and getting screwed over in the process.
How auto trading on traders works is like this:
They check to see if what goods are being sold and being bought and look for something that is "as of this moment" a profitable trade. They then very slowly fly and buy the goods on debit, and then try to sell the goods at the original buyer.
However if in the meantime that buyer got supplied by an NPC, you get to suffer the loss.
This is where it is important to restrict your ranges on your traders, and to have satellite coverage on stations so your traders aren't using hours old information that might no longer be accurate. If they have to they will use stock data on goods that is up to 4-5 hours old.

[grapedog]

You are correct in that it is strange that costs aren't logged. What you should be able to see is your traders profits, factoring in the buy price. However what is most likely happening to you is that your trader is buying goods on debit, and trying to sell them on old information, and getting screwed over in the process.
How auto trading on traders works is like this:
They check to see if what goods are being sold and being bought and look for something that is "as of this moment" a profitable trade. They then very slowly fly and buy the goods on debit, and then try to sell the goods at the original buyer.
However if in the meantime that buyer got supplied by an NPC, you get to suffer the loss.
This is where it is important to restrict your ranges on your traders, and to have satellite coverage on stations so your traders aren't using hours old information that might no longer be accurate. If they have to they will use stock data on goods that is up to 4-5 hours old.

Your post is mostly correct, but that isn't how trading works in X4(though it used to work that way in X3, which made players loading all their trade ships with jump drives ridiculously over-powered in the trade wars).

In X4 your auto-traders actually get price reservations, so the reservation they lock in is for a specific amount, at a specific price, to a specific location. From time to time though, not very often at all, the trades can become unable to be completed. Why that is I'm not sure, their deal is getting sniped somehow by NPC's, or your own traders. The vast majority of the time, when they find a deal to execute a trade, they will do so with that reservation they have.

Once you've got an economy, and some stations, usually I'll have those traders who get stuck with extra wares just re-deposit those wares into my own factories that either use/or produce that product. If you don't have most/all products covered with your stations, you can also have one station with a extra storage, and have any extra stuff you get transferred there. Go into your logical overview, and set a sell price on those wares, and from time to time NPC ships will come by and buy it. You don't have to worry about trying to set up 20 manual trades for 1 trader with a hold full of some random product.

It's what I do now with NVidium. I've only got like 1 miner out of my 10 or so, that have NVidium in the list as an option, when they get a load if they can't sell it, I have them dump it at that one station I have, and set a sell price on it, and let the NPC's come and buy it when they want it.

Your point on satellite coverage though is extremely spot on, it's the first thing I spend hours doing in each game I play, is exploring, and setting up that trade network. Doing missions along the way, to get traders once I get my network developed a good bit.

[Invasion]

Then your trader probably bought 300K worth of wares. The game does not log debits when your traders buy something that is meant to be resold.

Also if you haven't already noticed, there should be a "Credits due from trading" next to your wallet figure. If it isn't there, you might want to check on your trader if its stuck holding wares without a sell order.