I think I have a grasp on playing blue and would like to try playing red. I postponed playing red since there are so many ways to cash and, as anyone reading this thread, so many things more to learn about being red than there is to being blue.
My first question is what should be the starting EX level that I should have before stealing/robbing ports?

well, you know my answer as i've told said it before...
it depends 100% on the edits.
goto http://www.tw-cabal.com and read up.
after you read up, hit me up on icq if you have any other questions.

Depends on the steal/rob settings. In general, I start stealing when I can safely steal 50-60 holds of equip... but it all depends on the edits. For example, if you have a 1 tpw ship with 250 holds, ppt is more profitable than sst to a higher exp level. You just need to figure out what will give you the most credits/turn and that is typically the cashing method you want to use.