I read somewhere that one might be able to determine how much a corp is cashing by reading the stats. Here are the stats from a game I just started but was told that the game wasn't playable now:

This is the game status obtained by hitting "V" at the command prompt:

11,400 ports are open for business and have a net worth of 26,963,925.
22 planets exist in the universe, 54% have Citadels.
18 Traders (88% Good) are active in the game.
3,951,800 Fighters and 10 Mines are in use throughout the Universe.
2 Corporations are in business.

And here is the corporate ranking obtained by hittng "T" then "D" then "R" and the command prompt:

< R a n k e d C o r p o r a t i o n s >

Rank C# Name C.E.O.
---- -- --------------------------------- --------------------------------
1 2 ParanoiD zep
Corporate Experience: 8,392 Corporate Alignment: 264863
---- -- --------------------------------- --------------------------------
2 1 Watch out We are Mad Anger
Corporate Experience: 0 Corporate Alignment: 1509


It is obvious that Paranoid is winning. How does one determine how much they are cashing though?

Well there really is no way of telling for sure by being an outside party.
Also going by < R a n k e d C o r p o r a t i o n s > doesn't mean anything about who is wining the game. I would say from ur example Corp Mad Anger is a mixed corp of red and blues, so when tern hits they all lose their xp. CLV would probley show u more, cause u can look at the ships peeps are in and also how many reds they have on their team. Also Reading the logs will show who is killing each other the most, if that is the same Pirates game u mentioned b4, there is a death limit in that edit normally. Also that edit is normally MBBS, which means if they have the ports set up getting their xp back each day is no problem, just Mega Rob a couple ports.
The best way to tell who is winning is to know who has the most ftrs in the game, but that can be decieving too cause their is a way to hide ftrs so they don't show on the V screen. As far as cash, there is relly no need to not spend it ( except u go Level 5 tomorrow and want some cash left for shields )

And the way to hide figs from showing when doing a V screen is.....

unmanned ships do not show... have ships loaded with ftrs and no one in them, there not active
at least thats the way it used to be...

The only problem with hiding figs is you get extremely crappy odds on an unmanned ship.

Hehehe... extremely. Capturing an unmanned ship takes half the
ftrs at a manned one does. If you're hiding stuff in ships, be
sure you have a macro ready to x-port and dump those ftrs somewhere
more useful (xport, land, tpad, dump, land, tpad, xport back?)
when they're needed.

the ONLY way to tell who is *winning* is by asking the people playing.
the people *winning* could all be #SD# because they mothed the last planet in the game 9 times today.
also:
XP AND ALIGNMENT MEANS NOTHING.
i could have 4.5m of both and be nothing.
the *good* blues have 0 xp (unless they just killed someone) and 1k align (again, unless they just killed someone)
while a good red will have the appropriate experience for whatever cashing method he is using for the edits. (his align will reflect this)

I find it better to save cash than try to hide figs. Of course, you only do that if you have a secure place for it. The same would go for hiding figs though, too. btw, in that game, there are 12 planets with citadels. You can look a the edits and the age of game to try to guess what they might be and what level they are. Game logs also help fill you in on that.