Bitcoin Forum

I've noticed that the price difference between MtGox (http://mtgox.com) and BTC-e (http://btc-e.com) is often greater than 7%. But it takes only ~3% to transfer funds from MtGox to Btc-e.

So you can sell bitcoins for USD at MtGox, transfer funds to BTC-e and buy cheaper bitcoins there thus making ~3% with minimal risks.

The easy way of transferring funds from MtGox to Btc-e is OKPay (https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische). I noticed that transfers may take from several minutes to couple days though, so it might be a good idea to make reserves of USD at BTC-e before placing your buy and sell orders.

Minimizing the interval between buys and sells you minimize your risks. Though it might be a good idea to make sure that sell order at MtGox executes before placing your buy order at btc-e since sometimes MtGox is really slow.

Why am I writing all this? Just hoping to get some passive income via OKPay's referral program. So if you find this advise useful, please use my link to get registered: https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische (https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische)

what do you mean with "minimal risk" ?

That means you make orders in opposite directions almost simultaneously and don't care if the price goes up or down. I can't give the numbers though :)

Are USD transfers from Gox to Btc-e fast enough? Even an hour at this volatile price makes everything not worth it.

As I said, it takes from several minutes to several hours. So it is nice to have USD reserves in BTC-e. Well... I assume people don't put all their savings in bitcoin, just part of them.

Personally, I do not use Gox anymore. All this AML verification, sending documents and whatnot. Not worth it imo.

Yes, but still it is the most liquid exchange... Btw, Okpay (https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische) requires documents too. But it processes them much quicker than MtGox :)

In fact actuall arbitrage between mtgox and btce and many others is visible in paid version of bitcon-analytics.com/#arbitrage (http://bitcon-analytics.com/#arbitrage) for last 24 hours in real time.

So how much arbitragers are making per day nowadays?

If you have reserves on both exchanges, speed is not that important. You can transfer funds from BTC-e to MtGox with 0% fee via AurumXChange. But why would you do it?

Normally bitcoins are cheaper at BTC-e, so you want to move USD in opposite direction.

Unfortunately AurumXChange doesn't always allow to transfer funds from MtGox to Btc-e (and it will be impossible to withdraw with MtGox code soon), that's why I recommend OKPay (https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische) here. OKPay also offers both plastic and virtual debit cards, that could be convenient for international MtGox users (who can't use Dwolla to withdraw funds).

Am I missing something? There's no way to withdraw USD from MtGox into OKPay. If you have some way that isn't obvious, please do share.

https://mtgox.com/trade/funding-options -- from this page I was able to add OKPay as withdraw method for USD.

You can have some understanding of it with free version of the bitcoin-analytics.com/#arbitrage (http://bitcoin-analytics.com/#arbitrage) which shows 6 hours delayed data.

Well, I feel like an idiot. Added. Question - how long did it take for them to validate yours as a withdrawal method?  I'd really love to take advantage of the current spread between the two...

This does not appear to work for me.

https://i.imgur.com/wAVyXzM.png

Did you try bank transfer option?

Oh look, there it is. Thanks!

At the moment the price spread between the BTC-e ask ($243) and the MTGox bid ($246) is just 1.2%, making arbitrage non-profitable.

That's a situation when you could move the money back to btc-e. Even with a loss, it might make sense...

At 4am last night, you would have saved $15 per coin.. it varies by time of day.  The margin needs to be at least 7% to be profitable and that's just to cover the fees to move money and coins between the two..

Sometimes the price difference is quite high. You lose 3-4% on fees, so if difference is higher than that, then it is profitable. Though probably the best strategy is to wait until the difference is at least 7%, otherwise you are likely to hit your withdrawal limits at mtgox without noticeable profit.

Got 12 referrals and $1 from one of them. Thanks! :)

It was > 10% difference few minutes ago ($99 vs $111)

Can't you just maintain USD balances at both, and execute the trades simultaneously? Don't they have free methods of withdrawal (that take a few days). If you have a buffer of BTC and USD at both you should be able to execute your arbitrage and even the balances out periodically right? Am I missing something?

Yes, that's what I suggest too since funds transfers may take much time.

But you can't deposit to btc-e or withdraw from btc-e without fees (unless you use btc-e redeemable code). If you live in the USA, you can withdraw almost for free with Dwolla, but I am not sure what is the best way to deposit to btc-e from Dwolla. OKPay (https://www.okpay.com/?rbp=arsenische) is probably the easiest option and not that expensive. It also offers a debit card, so you can cash out with ATM :)

Do you have code to withdraw from btc-e via app?

Sorry, I didn't understand the question. Did you mean withdrawal API, or btc-e redeemable code?

Can you withdraw from btc-e via an application?

I don't think so. Here is the API (https://btc-e.com/api/documentation). I don't see deposit/withdrawal functions there.

Yes it's called a 'web browser'  8)

I know the api. I just thought you might have done it already.

Did everybody see the difference ~10% and sometimes ~12%? I could make some money if I had a trusted account at MtGox :)

Can you not transfer funds from BTC-e to your wallet then from your wallet to MtGox?

Are you talking about moving bitcoins? You can withdraw bitcoins from btc-e to your wallet or mtgox directly with a 0.01btc fee. Not sure about transferring USD from btc-e to mtgox as there is no much sense in it.

Yes, I am talking about moving BTC from BTC-e to MtGox. The .01BTC fee would be cheaper than the 3.99% fee that bitinstant charges if you were moving more than .25BTC (and may be faster)

yes you can do this via API. However, you must contact support and they must approve you to use those API's. But they do exist.

Aaargh! *facepalm*

OKpay funding fees: 1% $, 0% € SEPA, 2% € Sofortüberweisung
OKPAY -> BTCe deposit fee: 0,5% (okpay side) + 2% (btce side)
BTCe trading fee: 0,2%
BTCe withdrawal fee: 0,01 BTC
Mt.Gox trading fee: 0,6%
Mt.Gox withdraw fee: ??? (1% for OKpay, dunno for SEPA/Wire)

so that's a loss of 0.01BTC and 3,3% in best or 5,2% in worst case
however i calculated 40$ profit with 1000$ investment and the 10$ difference today (132/142)

am i wrong?

try it and report back.

The issue here is how long it takes to transfer from MtGox to OKPAY. If the transfer happens in minutes or a couple hours then you can start the process again and again until you hit your MtGox withdrawal limit.

So the question is (and this has been asked before) how long is it CURRENTLY taking to withdraw USD from Gox to OKPAY?

I heard something about Gox had low OKPAY reserves at the moment. Can anyone give us any current insight on this?

i've done several mtgox->okpay withdrawals, and the time taken varies considerably. Sometimes it happens within an hour, sometimes a day, sometimes 2 or even 4 days.

so unless mtgox shows their okpay reserves there is no way to know how long it will take.

In my experience over the past few weeks, it can take several business days to move USD from MtGox to Okpay. Minutes or hours is too optimistic. 2-3 days is more realistic.

Thanks for the input.

I dont know if this has been mentioned, but it saves time to just put your MtGox "deposit" wallet in as the address to "withdraw" to from BTCe. recently, GOX has been lower than btce!!!

That happens when the exchange rate drops. People are more hesitant to sell on BTC-e because it's more difficult to withdraw USD from there than from MtGox.

This has been my experience as well.

The spread between Gox and BTC-e is down to $1 as of late.

Anyone have any insight as to why? I'm no trading pro so but I am guessing either getting fiat onto Gox has gotten harder or getting fiat onto BTC-e has gotten easier. Anyone want to chime in?

Trading robots....

These opportunities will get smaller and smaller as more robots join in and the market becomes more efficient.