This was a very astute comment from yesterday's post on spending 20,000 silver:

"I have followed this blog quite some time now and have tried some really nice short-term money making tips.

However, I figured that I can easily make 5~10g in 35~40 minutes of my time without the trading post. The time I'd spend on the trading post usually takes way longer and sometimes yields less money, since uncountable numbers of people are playing with the trading post.

Also, once I reached a certain amount of money (100g+), I feel like either the invest-earn ratio is too low, as I invest in higher value gears which are not that often resold and thus are usually always flipable with a bit of time but not that much profit either, or it'd take me AGES to invest my money on items that yield me proper profit but are also usually flipped by many, which would again lead me not to play on the TP anymore.

Usually I love playing the markets, and in real life I'm happy for every cent I make, however, after some time and a specific amount of money, it's way too slow for me in the game imo.

I'd love to hear some opinions, or your - Markco's - opinion on high-end reselling. I have read your post about flipping exotics, but the margin is very narrow already.

Also, speculating and predicting future changes is very risky and hard."

The answer to your question, mr. or mrs. anonymous, is the very same excuse you use for not diving into speculation trading. Because speculating and predicting future changes is very risky and hard, the highest profit to be made is right there in front of your face.

Once you pass a certain gold per hour threshold, on both the trading post and farming between items being sold, then you need to adjust your strategy towards high volume, low profit markets. This will take care of your daily growth and make sure that you're not wasting time with the low volume, medium profit stuff that I tend to cover on this website (i.e. 30 markets in 30 days). Beyond day trading, you need to start investing in upcoming holidays and events as best you can. Stay on top of the news, watch for items getting too cheap that have no current uses, guess when the next bot ban will be and buy up tier 5/6 mats, etc. Also be aware of tier 5 mats converting into tier 6 mats at a huge profit margin just after bot bans take place.

Am I making more sense now? Need anything else explained in greater detail? I'm happy to help!