You asked "What is Trade Wars Helper?" 

Trade Wars Helper is a players TERMINAL PROGRAM that maintains an ONLINE
DATABASE of sectors with their port, warp to, and other information.
Several commands are available to utilize this information in addition
to automating most of the repetitive processes and a GRAPHICS MAPPING
capability.  Trade Wars Helper not only makes playing more enjoyable, it
makes you much more effective. 

The latest version is TWHELP70.ZIP.  It can be downloaded from Monty's
Place BBS on the first call by dialing (801) 944-8636 and logging on as
"Just Fun" with a password of "Software".  The file size is 270K and
14,400 bps capability is available.  Please just log on, download and
log off. 

The main features of Trade Wars Helper are: 

Automated cross trading between paired ports, optionally using the
psychic probe to maximize experience points.  You can even cross trade
between nonadjacent sectors with or without the TransWarp Drive, "triple
trade", and involve the class 7 and 8 port in cross trading.  And for
those who like the evil side of things, there is the automated
sell/steal cycle which utilizes the psychic probe with increasing
accuracy at each trade without any intervention on your part! 

Of course you must find the best ports to trade at or steal from so
there is not only the ability to locate specific port types and paired
ports, but also triple trading pairs, nonadjacent trading pairs,
transwarp trading pairs and other specialized combinations. 

You don't just trade or steal, you want to travel around and explore the
TW universe, right?  Just enter the /u command to see the paths to the
five closest unexplored sectors or, better yet, just enter /e and have
TW Helper take you to the nearest unexplored sector!  Concerned about
mines or other enemy forces?  No problem!  Just buy a long range scanner
and tell TW Helper to density scan each sector before moving you into
it.  TW Helper can even move from one unexplored sector to another,
stopping only when your direct involvement is required!  And it can
optionally and automatically holoscan, deploy fighters and/or trade
along the way! 

Then there are the E-probe routines that can launch an E-probe to an
unexplored sector not warped to by any other known sector, launch to an
isolated sector, or launch so as to pass thru the maximum numbers of
sectors not visited during the current session.  This, like many
features in Trade Wars Helper, can be accomplished quickly and easily
only with a terminal program accessing an online database. 

Other features include showing sectors with fighters closest to a dest-
ination sector, locating enemy fighters, showing isolated sectors,
automated colonizing of a planet, automated buying and conveying of
product to a planet, automated hauling of colonists, product, or
shields between planets, automated purchasing of planetary shields,
automated mine disruption, automated robbing of credits, creating the
TWVIEW and/or TWASSIST data files, merging another traders database,
accessing a scroll back buffer and creating a capture file.  TW Helper
also keeps track of busted ports, avoided sectors and Major Space Lanes. 

And if all this weren't enough, Trade Wars Helper provides a graphics
(EGA/VGA) mapping capability with mouse or keyboard interactive
controls.  A specific sector and its adjacent sectors to any level can
be graphically displayed or the path between two sectors can be mapped.
Controls include the ability to change levels, scale, contents, and
separation to present the most useful layout.  In addition to being able
to click on any sector in the map, the sectors resulting from many of
the other commands can be selected using the mouse.  Whether used online
or offline this graphics mapping capability makes strategic planning
both more effective and more enjoyable.
 
If you haven't tried Trade Wars Helper before, now is the time.  Since
an example database is provided in the zip file, you can take a look at
the graphics feature and many of the commands and displays without ever
going online or initializing your own database!  The graphics command is
simply /G (capitalized).  And although it is quite easy to install and
run, an option has been incorporated to display only an introductory set
of commands to simplify the learning process.  Try it, and see for
yourself that Trade Wars Helper is simply "the best player utility
available"!