Bitcoin Forum

Hi I have a quick question,

Will you ever make much profit from buying bitcoin on 1 exchange and selling on another. I wouldn't want to be selling on Mt Gox as I understand there has been problems with USD withdrawls.

Thankyou for your help

this practice is known as arbitrage, it's possible, but it's currently hard to do because the exchanges have pretty long withdrawal times.

Thanks for your help

I'm sure a lot of users do this already but don't admit it.

Nonsense. its not practical because of the time taken to withdraw cash from exchanges. Any arbitrage opportunity is quickly filled by market forces.

I know people who did this with a profit. It's especially profitable if you convert to other currencies as well.

Do you know which websites are best for this?

No, arbitrage is not currently possible across btc exchanges due to extraction limits and long times

Right now it's not the best time to do this because of big swings. BTC goes up and down by 100$ each day so you can earn without arbitrage.
When a price is more stable it can be profitable. Example - Mt.Gox USD price is always higher than other exchanges, if you buy on btc-e or bitstamp and sell on gox you have instant profit, but as others wrote here, the withdrawal time is long so it may take weeks before you get your fiat and can buy again.

Thankyou for your help

I wrote me a bot to check for opportunities, but it's long ago, that I actually did such trades. It might work, if 2 parties in different countries collaborate, though.

https://i.imgur.com/OoP0aNo.jpg

There are websites which make this possible.
There is a particulair site where you can sell bitcoins for 3100 TRL (= 1550 usd) fixed price.

My secret :)

Thanks for sharing that.  Very useful.

Customers of ours have had really great success arbing between us and Bitstamp. In many cases the BTC spread has been $70 or more.

Do you mind sharing the website's URL with me on personal message?

And who is "us" if you don't mind me asking?

I do a lot of arbitrage and it is possible. Some markets are usually higher in price and some are lower. Buy on btc-e and bitstamp and sell on smaller ones.

Can you share the URL with me on PM as well.

As others have stated, arbitrage is definitely a thing and I even saw a guide on it somewhere, but the long withdraw times and the volatility of bitcoin doesn't work well together. You'd be better off just day trading it or holding it or whatever you do to make money instead of arbitrage.

It's possible but usually not worth the trouble and the fees. :-\

Travis, is there a faster and more reliable way to fund coinmkt accounts with USD other than money orders since OkPay doesn't work for folks in the US anymore?

Given the long withdrawal fees, its *extremely* risky. You are better off learning how to trade well.