Hi! Welcome to my guide. I hope to make this guide useful to everyone from beginners just getting into trading to experienced traders. Any and all help is appreciated. If you notice a mistake, missing information, outdated information, etc. please let me know in the comments. With all that said i hope this guide help's you become better at trading.

1st. This guide will cover many topic's such as:

• Basic rules of trading
  
• Browser extensions
  
• Commonly used trading terms
  
• Price checking
  
• Stickers
  
• Skins to keep an eye out for
  
• And much more

2nd. This guide is in no way shape or form complete nor will it ever be due to the constantly changing market of csgo skins, stickers, etc. However i plan to keep it as up to date as i can as time goes on. I am currently going to college for an IT major and Philosophy minor so please be patient with me i am doing my best.

3rd. Any and ALL help is welcome and accepted.

So you decided you want to get into trading, huh?
Well you came to the right place, but before we get started there are some basic things you'll need to understand.

• BS,WW,FT,MW,FN: These are the wear of the skin being traded. - if you dont know this already just uninstall
  
• ST: This means StatTrack. - again uninstall if you didnt know that
  
• K/k: k means keys. Example - 50k=50 keys
  
• B/O: "Buy Out" Example - B/O = 15k, this means that if you offer the person 15 keys they will 100% accept your offer and trade
  
• C/O: "Current Offer" self explanatory really, its the best offer the people has recieved their item so far.
  
• SS: "ScreenShot" A screenshot of the skin in-game
  
• Overpay: This means the person who is buying a specific item needs to pay more than the value of the skin they are trading for
  Example:
  
• Lowball: The act of offering way lower than the seller is "expecting / the items value"
  
• QS: "Quick Selling" The owner of the item wants to sell the item fast so they will offer it for less then market price.
  
• [H]: "Have" - What the person has. Example - [H]21k or [H]"Skin Name"
  
• [W]: "Want" - What the person wants. Example - [W]21k or [W]"Skin Name"
  
• Downgrade: This Means the person is looking to trade their item for multiple items that are worth less than the skins price with the benefit of getting overpayed.
  Example:
  Coming Soon
  
• Upgrade: This Means the person is looking to trade their items for an lower quality or priced items with Overpay in order to get a higher tier skin, for example a knife.
  Example:
  Coming Soon

• PS: "Play Side" The side of the knife/skin that can be seen when playing.
  
• BS: "Back Side" The other side of the knife/skin. Usually have to Inspect the skin to see this side.

There are more terms pertaining to Knife Trading but we'll cover those later on in this guide

A few years ago it may have been possible to start trading with literally nothing; however, that isnt the case anymore. If you plan to make money you have to spend a bit of money.


A good starting point would be anywhere from 10-20 keys(25$-50$) depending on your level of confidence in your abilities.
This will allow you to get a good first look at the trading scene and understand how it works without losing too much money.

So you got your keys and your ready to trade, but where do you find someone to trade with?
Well there are lots of place to find people looking to trade with you!
Here are some good places to trade.

• CSGO Trading Subreddit (I'd recommend only browing and trading NOT making post's of your own if your just starting out because they have a very strict set of rules you need to follow)
  
• Steam Trading Forum
  
• Any trading server in game

Yup, thats right. Were gonna use the comunity market. But before you get all confused were not gonna be using it like other people. We will be using it to know when to buy, sell, and invest in skins and more.

Trading requires relatively simple yet hard to master skill's that comes with time and dedication. Think of trading as being an Entrepreneur, meaning your success depends on the following skills

• Resilience - Everyone has their bad days and your going to take a loss at some point in your trading career, but keeping a positive outlook and not giving up makes you better.
  
• Learning - You need to accept that you dont know everything there is to trading. Even I dont know everything about trading. The skin market is always changing. You need to be able to stay up to date on new trends, skin demands, etc.
  
• Risk - This goes hand in hand with the first skill. You have to be able to take a risk, but dont take that the wrong way and be reckless. Do research and use your knowledge to made educated decisions on the risks your taking.
  
• Knowing an opportunity when you see one - You need to learn how to spot trends and recognize opportunities when they present themselves and make a plan for how your going to go about them.

With these skills you will be a pro trader in no time.

if your making a post in the steam trading forum or typing in a trade servers chat it should look like this:

[H]skin name+condition/ amount of keys [W]skin name+condition/ amount of keys

If your using voice chat in a trade server its basically the same thing Except your actually saying the advert instead of typing it also be sure to say your steam name so they can find you.

MAKE SURE YOU SOUND ENTHUSIASTIC WHEN GIVING YOUR ADVERT CATCH PEOPLES ATTENTION

If you were in a trade server and someone gave their advert in a monotone voice sounding like they dont care about anything would you wanna trade with them? No you wouldn't.
If YOU don't care about your advert why should anyone else?

The following sections of this guide will be the most challenging by far.
You will NOT learn this instantly it will take some time to perfect.

Price Checking is the act/skill of calculating the value of a skin. (usually skins with patterns or certain stickers)

Here are a few examples of skins which can be price checked: