Ayeee wusss good mah mannn, we gonna 420 blaze dis shiz aight

Well hello there fellow traders / soon to be traders, I am your host, FliQ aka Trademeister, shut up bro, ure trash and I'm here today to present to you the ultimate and THE ONLY trading guide you'll ever need this year. With that, sit back and enjoy the guide. ;)

This guide comes in 3 sections, of which are as listed below:
1) Principles Of Trading
2) Meta Trading
3) Useful Sources For Trading

Do feel free to click on any sections whenever and wherever you are. Alright my friends, this is FliQ signing off and I wish you all the best in your trading endeavours! what do you think this is? an email writing class? git gud son

Regards,
your friendly neighbourhood trader-man

Trading is a form of activity, of which may have been picked up by many CSGO players in our community today. Upon writing this guide, i have come to the conclusion to include this section in the guide because i feel that it is my responsibility as a fellow trader, to remind others the basis of trading. *Yawn* Boring, next section please But wait, trust me, this is worth it, because if you do as i say, you WILL get more trades, hence more profit ;)


VALUES AND ETIQUETTES

As a start, i would like to highlight the importance of values and etiquettes when conversing with another trader. *Protip* try to be kind to the trader and start off by greeting them AND then asking whether they are free to discuss for a trade. You see, most traders simply jump the gun and rudely spam messages the second i accept their friend request. I mean like reallyyyy? im in a compe game bro These type of people deserves to be fed to the lions imo I'm a simple man, if youre impatient and rude, 99.999999% of the time you'll get ignored+block C-C-C-COMBO, Omega LUL

As a trader myself, upon being greeted warmly, i tend to be less firm and be more open for negotiations. Using this philosophy, if I did it to others, theres a high chance i can ask for a better trade amirite

AND please, restrain yourself from giving a severly lowballed offer I see guilty faces, yall deserve to roll down a cliff

What To Trade

Rule of thumb for me would be that you would always want liquids when you trade. Liquids mean items that can easily be traded. For example, Keys, AK redlines, AWP asiimovs and Dragon Lores for high valued trades.

As a start, i would highly recommend going for keys because theyre basically the currency in CSGO, prices would not fluctuate that much if kept on a long-term view bois, the hydra keys were an anomaly

So what did i do when i was trading? Basically what i did was to start with a certain amount of keys. With those keys, i trade for weapon A. I then trade weapon A for weapon B, a higher valued skin. *this process may continue* Then finally trading final skin for more keys. Overall= Profit.

Okay, heres the deal, the CSGO trading community is ever-evolving. 2 years ago when the trading scene was at its prime, people could trade anything and everything that they wanted (and they can still profit). Today, everything has changed. This section of the guide will be my observations of the trading scene as well as my suggestions of what prospective traders should trade in. Not gonna lie, this is the crux of the entire guide . Here goes,

# Pattern-based trades

A year ago, traders DESPISED dealing with pattern-based trades. Examples of pattern- based trading would be trading different Case Harden-ed designs, Doppler designs, Fades & Marble Fades, as well as Slaughter- patterned skins. Today, though some still shun from such trades, I observe that redditors, *People that use reddit threads* , would constantly trade patterned-based items. Reddit is replete with such trades, trust me, When i came back from my trade hiatus, i was like yoooo what the heck is this bro

Attached below is a trade i made a few months back:

so i traded from 55 keys to a flip knife doppler FN, phase 2

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/960857516896668928/084E21C35E0CF0B3222D0AD52EEE305D53230C61/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Then i traded that doppler to a butternilla (butterfly knife vanilla)

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/960857516896669971/1F99852F2A18AFB31AEC262825F8279EAAE2A920/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Afterwhich i traded to 59 keys

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/960857516896675531/28CA18029D438C6A073A85C00A35F4511A26AC64/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Take note that dopplers are easy to deal with. If youre talking about case hardens, those might take months. Just a perspective to take note, no biggie

# Float- based trades

Most traders would deal with float based trades because its profitable and efficient, so to speak. As long as the float is extremely low or extremely high, you know you can profit off it. Examples of float based trades would be the ones you commonly see in forums such as the Blackiimov ( which means an asiimov but with a super high float, and has a black scope. In float- based trades, only 2 exteriors are being dealt with and they are Factory New skins and the Battle Scarred skins. Personally, i deal with Battle Scarred skins. Theyre easy to trade and profit margins could be around 2-5 keys usually.

Here is a trade i made, a profit of 1 key Not the best, i know but hey, profit is profit, right?

I traded 52 keys for an M9 Rust Coat Bs

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/960857516896697025/8FAF6401BBC91B65D87FE0AE975F49291AFB7469/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Then traded the m9 for 53 keys

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/ugc/960857516896700192/88178F6F670DD87E969933221A39B115DA0B0CFA/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Sticker-Based Trades

This is the last observation i had. Stickers here isnt just any random stickers we see in the market. What is referred here would be Katowice stickers, usually kato 14 (holo) Some traders take non-holo too, it depends .

Sticker trading is so lengthy This guide too man, phew u talk too much! but to summarise, the value of the sticker decreases during trades (because no one takes in original sticker price+ skin value) during trades. Sticker placement is also very important.

Generally, for Sniper Rifles, most commonly the AWP and Scout, no one uses Scar and g3sg1 guns mein, theyre ga... . The best sticker placements would be on the scope itself.

For the rifles, the most ideal sticker placement for an AK47, would be on the wooden part of the ak, (the front part) and for the M4, it would be above the magazine.

Some of the stickers that are valued by most traders would be as follows:

Top 3 being the most sought after stickers to collectors

- Crown
- Howl
- Kato 14
- (a handful) Kato 15
- Flammable
- Firestarter

Similar to pattern-based trades, sticker-based trades are also time consuming. It might take months to secure a profitable trade, you just have to find the right collector for these trades.

Where To Trade

Well, there are many trading sources, but i would highly recommend Reddit.
Here are the two trading threads i use personally.

1) https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensiveTrade/
2) https://www.reddit.com/r/csgotrade/

Another source that i would recommend would be in the Steam Community Trading Post.
Simply navigate to discussions (Press community, the one u see on top of this screen beside 'library' ) > Click on CSGO > then to 'trading' in sub forums (scroll down a bit, this is located at the right side of the screen)

Where To Check Skins Value

Personally i use Steam Analyst because its reliable and it shows you some trend lines, which i feel would be useful if you want to judge whether you would want to trade an item for a long-term viewpoint. Not gonna lie, i use steam community market too, to see how much other traders value their skins

https://csgo.steamanalyst.com/

Where To Get PROFESSIONAL Screenshots For Your Skins

Having screenshots of your skins professionally would captivate other traders because they can put into perspective how it would be like if they own that skin. This might heighten your chance of securing a trade with him/ her. I recommend CSGRO.

http://www.csgro.com/

WOW, you survived the entire guide? you're amazing, you deserve a cookie..I'm sorry (not) if this was too long ^.^

Before i end this guide, i would like to wish prospective traders a good luck in their trading journey, and i hope that you may pick up trading as a hobby. Personally, when i look back my past, OMG THIS GUY WITH HIS GRANDFATHER'S STORY AGAIN??? , i would say that i really enjoyed trading, i look forward to it every single day.

AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, be aware that there are scammers out there. I'm not going to lie, there are MILLIONS of scammers that add me every single day. Take precautions and try to be aware of the replete scamming methods that they use nowadays. Stay away from links funny i said this after putting up so many links as screenshot proofs, but dont worry, i dont scam and suspicious profiles !

I recommend this youtuber that i watch, he's really funny and entertaining and hey, its educational too Link to his channel is attached below: His name is jmw Films

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCiEKK4835FTejF4ogW4P-A

here's a glimpse of his videos, all credits solely goes to him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bva1H_0EyKw


With that, thank you guys for reading this guide, i appreciate it! I hope you may give this guide a thumbs up and share it to whichever friend you feel might benefit from this. Thank you once again and goodbye :'))