There was a game i used to play when I was a kid and it was a trading game where you had a spaceship and could pick up cargo and passengers and go to another planet and sell the cargo for a price. then buy more stuff and while you make money you can upgrade your engine and spaceship. It was not very in depth but was still fun to play. Can someone please put me in the right direction or have any tips for me? Thanks!

Was it 3d or overhead or side scrolling?

Rough timeframe when you played it? Was there combat, or just trading? Top-down, or first-person piloting?

Yeah I remember that game. It was Elite.

Here's a gameplay video of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6120QOlsfU

Maybe quote the guy so he gets notification.....

It's a link to Darude's "Sandstorm". It's essentially a rickroll. Best not to alert OP of a wasted post.

Yeah but I was referring to the other two users who were asking questions about the game without quoting.

could you tell which year it was when you were kid please ? to compare with released/available titles at that time ?

there are many games of this style

also which computer or platform, and many/few colors, 2d ? 3d ?

details like that ?

However, there is indeed a game called Elite, with a gameplay similar to what the OP describes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_%28video_game%29

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJvdZWhNLiM

There are a lot of games like that. Here's a large list of them:

http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/genre-simulation-space-trading-and-combat

As it's said on the page: "This game was not commercially available". Maybe that's why ;)

I do believe there are lots of games on Mobygames that were never commercially available.

Sure, but it does make it more difficult to track them down. Perhaps that's why Colonial Trader is not there.

Gazillionaire?