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[TheEqualsE]

I'm going to make a video about trading in DF soon, so I thought I'd run some of my ideas by you guys to see if I left anything out / got anything wrong.

Here's everything I know about trading in no particular order

If you focus on trading slightly more than usual you can have more to trade with the first several caravans.  This can get you more food, more of whatever you don't want to make yourself.  In some places this can be extremely handy, such as those without wood, food, sources of leather, metal, etc.

If you're going to try to trade more than usual it helps to start with dedicated traders.  Having some level of skill at appraisal is necessary.  I usually make a trader around Competent at it.  Judge of intent can tell you how the traders are feeling, if they are happy or getting mad. 

The material of trade goods maters.  Marble or any other of the flux stones is worth more in trade goods.  You can make extremely expensive encrusted trade goods by deliberately mining out all the gems you come across and keep a setter and cutter busy.  Eventually they can make nearly artifact quality items by doing the same trade goods over and over.  When you have a couple each of cutters and setter you have a fair shot at a fey mood and getting a legendary.  Legendary cutters and setters make extremely expensive items.

Metal is even better than stone when it comes to trade goods.  Clothes from dyed cloth is more expensive than just clothes.  The ultimate expensive item to sell is an adamantine spiked ball, but I wouldn't sell those until you made as many weapons and armor as you wanted first.

I like to trade for things I'm too lazy to make myself or are hard to farm / get in a fort like enough leather.  I don't like to trade for anything I can make better versions of like armor and weapons.  I do buy raw ingredients for food.  Selling high value cooked meals is one of the easiest ways to get a lot of money from trades.  I like to buy animals to turn into food and leather.  I buy leather, books for fun, parchment because getting enough can be a pain.  I buy clothes and armor for the humans in my fort so I don't have to make it myself or as often.  I buy musical instruments because they are so complicated to make.  My favorite thing to trade for is giant animals from the elves.

I don't hear this get talked about a lot, but if you give any of the traders a lot of profit, like double or more, they bring more and more stuff up to a certain limit.  The humans and dwarves will bring you pages of stuff on their wagons, pages of meat or parchment if you ask for it.  The elves will bring about up to 3 times their starting amount, which is still just not that much.

They can only carry so much weight of stuff away.  If you sell them trade goods in bins they pack the bins up and leave faster.  The world is a dangerous place.  I usually put my trade depot underground with routes to it from the edge of the map.  Pro tip - the route needs to be direct or they will pick one that seems strange to the player.  Since this is a way in to your fort there needs to be a drawbridge between the trade depot and the rest of the fort to close during invasions.  Since you can bring the merchants to you and put them where you want, why not make it close to your main stairs, and put stockpiles for trade nearby.

Things I like to sell: trade goods, used clothes.  For the first caravan whatever we made that they like - any expensive shields, beds.  I don't usually sell prepared meals because like a lot of people I feel they are a bit OP, but for that first caravan I do sell whatever we have, because we can buy far more raw ingredients from the caravan and more than make up for it.  I usually make a dedicated stone crafter or two in my starting 7, and one gem cutter and one gem setter, different people.  Why not make nicer more expensive things right from the start?  To keep three crafters shop fed for stone I set up stockpiles with lots of wheelbarrows and have most of the fort enabled for stone hauling. 

In my experimental trading fort I had one crafters shop constantly making stone pots for all the food and booze we were making, and two for making the two kinds of trade goods the dwarven liaison had ordered.

I don't usually pay attention to what they are asking for  unless they are paying 180 or 200 percent more for it.  In this case they wanted rings and crowns, so I switched from making any trade goods to just those for a year.

Currently the option for more trades in DF hack lets you ask the humans for what you want to trade, so you can at least ask for more of what you want.

So, any suggestions?  Anything I completely left out?

[clinodev]

Good stuff!

I would add that glass and starting bronze from ores is a pretty magical combination on top of what you've listed.

The trade-centered strategy you lay out is pretty much exactly what my Craftlord embark profiles are made to facilitate, incidentally. All seven starting dwarves have at least one maximum level moodable wealth-generating or value creating skill. Here's the current iteration (I'm in the process of revising and extending the set): https://pastebin.com/GRat7hjQ

It has your dedicated trader, who happens to be your dedicated gem setter (gem cutting is no quality, just speed and quality of gem crafts/useless large gems, so you can throw any dwarves not otherwise occupied at gem cutting.) To pay for maxed out skills, it replaces tools with bronze ores, coal, and a large sandbag pile for immediate glass. Just throw up a smelter with one of the included stones, make a couple rounds of coke from coal, and a couple batches of bronze for 2 axes and 6 picks (many hands move mountains quickly,) and you'll be well ahead of a normal starting embark by Summer.

Here's a slightly dated line by line explanation of a previous iteration (aimed at less experienced players, but it shows my logic):
https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/5tjtbx/an_updated_and_annotated_craftlord_embark_profile/

[TheEqualsE]

Ah, glass.  I almost always embark on a location that has it.  A patch of sand and a magma forge are nearly magical way to turn dwarves time into money.  Clear glass and crystal glass make for expensive items.  Just don't try to trade them to elves.  They know you chopped down trees to make it.

I see we really think alike, clinodev.  I too always bring dogs and turkeys to my forts.  They are a source of meat and leather that's easy to farm.

Here are two more thoughts of stuff I was aware of but left out so far.

You can train your trader up by making many small trades instead of a few large ones.  When a fort is new I do this, but quit after a while.  When you get migrants, you often get better traders.  I see no reason not to fire the old one in favor of someone more skilled at it.

Steel is extremely valuable, but if I make something from steel it's a weapon or armor and I want it for my troops.  I prefer to trade trade goods that are worthless to me and keep the useful stuff.

[Sutremaine]

Appraisal isn't necessary. The dwarf trading in the depot when the trade screen is first opened will get a whole bunch of Appraisal XP.

[Loud Whispers]

There's not many points where you'd ever want to sell your adamantine, other metal or textile products easily suffice to provide your Fort with a robust export economy

[TheEqualsE]

I agree that you normally never need to sell adamantine.  I can only think of one situation where you would, and that is when you have so much that you don't know what else to do with it.  In one of my favorite forts the adamantine spires were very tall, and I made more weapons than the fort needed, and a bunch of full suits of armor.  I still had a bunch left, but not enough to make full sets of armor.  Selling adamantine spiked balls was very fast because you don't have to bring a lot of things to the trade depot.  Giving the elves a ridiculous amount of profit lead to them bringing a lot of animals, which eventually brought a breeding pair of giant tigers to the fort.  I figure it was a pretty fair trade.  I'd happily pay more if I could reliably get giant animals from them.

[daggaz]

If you are going to start with a dedicated broker (counter-argument: trading is brokenly OP and many immigrants will have applicable social skills) then the following skills are all you need:

5 ranks in judge of intent.
If you really want to push it, put 5 more ranks in either negotiator or persuader or both.

As mentioned, he will immediately get a huge bonus in appraisal from the first trade.

This dwarf should be good in social situations if possible.

Keep in mind this dwarf is moodable.  Have him fart around making weapons in his offtime until he hits novice,  or just give him one rank at the start.