No Man's Sky/Money-making/Local goods

The concept is simple: each system will have different locally-produced goods, as well as demands. It's a bit like a rock-paper-scissors game. You should buy as many local goods as possible. After you stocked up, warp to another system that wants it, and sell the goods. Maybe use this time for an inventory upgrade, then go and buy the local goods of this new system.

Before buying more goods, consider exploring a few planets. This will allow you to find some cool items to sell, resupply, and get units by scanning new discoveries. Uploading the discoveries on the pause menu will net you some extra nanites, another type of currency.

System types
There are four types of systems:
 * Industry (cog): demands minerals, exports tech
 * Power generator (power pack): demands tech, exports power
 * Mining (pickaxe): demands power, exports minerals
 * Science (potion): demands science equipment, exports exotic goods

Demand and supply amounts
Each system also has a supply amount. Larger amounts means you won't get much money from the system, due to low demand, but you may be able to buy more goods in those systems for a lower price.

Smaller supply amounts mean everything has higher demand, meaning you profit more from selling, but spend more money on goods than usual. You still profit, but in a different way. Better suited for ending your trading cycle when you get bored and want to do something else.

To see the amounts, get the "System Economy Scanner" starship upgrade from the Anomaly, then open the galaxy map. Look for systems with more white dots next to the economy image. These are more profitable places to begin the trading cycle.

Tips

 * Stay away from pirate-controlled systems. They are bad news for traders, and offer no safe goods to buy to sell elsewhere. They offer illegal stuff, which nets more money, but that is considered smuggling.
 * Pirates will scan your ship at times, and when they see your 40-million-units worth of cargo, they will attack. Consider getting a cargo scan deflector upgrade for your ship. Getting the upgrade allows you to block these scans, giving more time to escape.