Bitcoin Forum

So. - As I type this the current list price for BTC/USD is the following.

BTC-E BTC/USD: $112.92
MT.GOX BTC/USD: $143.20

So firstly, why such a big difference between the 2 exchanges.. and wouldn't it be a no brainer to buy say $100k worth on BTC-E - Transfer them to MT.Gox and sell at a profit? (even with small transaction fees) - or have i completely missed something? o_O

I don't get it...  ???

It's 134 for me on BTC-E. Still 10$..

Some people are doing it.

You should buy on btc-e that's a no-brainer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrage

there's good reason. getting money on there is a pain. probably easier if you're just mining LTC or something else that's traded on there.

try bitcoin-analytics.com/#arbitrage (http://bitcoin-analytics.com/#arbitrage) to see almost all available arbitrage options per BTC volume among major markets in real time with history for last 24 hours.

But is arbitrage-trading really possible with bitcoins? I mean the network needs about 1-3 hours to validate a transaction and for real arbitrage-trading you need then much luck because of the volatility to buy cheap and sell high on other exchange, or am I wrong?

I dont see a reason why arbitrage wont be possible at bitcoin..
You need accounts at as many exchanges, and with some simple Algo-trading there can be a nice non-risky profit,
Its a matter of time before people will get on it

It's because it's not convenient at all to get USD into BTC-e.

THIS


The 110$ is the last price since your last visit, always refresh !! i miss a heartbeat everytime

It costs about 3.5% - 4% to go Dwolla -> MtGox -> OKpay -> BTC-e, or about 3.5% using AurumXchange.  So as long as the spread is greater than those costs, arbitrage away.   For example, the spread between the bid at Bitfloor and the ask at BTC-e is almost 11% (right now)!  I have bitcoins already waiting at Bitfloor and dollars sitting at BTC-e.  Buy at BTC-e, sell at Bitfloor - instant profit.  

https://cointhink.com/ (https://cointhink.com/)

But how can this work, if I sell for example at 11PM at Mt.Gox for 142$ (meanwhile at BTC-E the price is at 132$) and then I send the $ over some different Exchanges to BTC-E to buy there new Bitcoins. I may don´t need any time, but after buying the Bitcoins there for about lets say also 132$ and try to send them to Mt.Gox, they need about 3 hours to validate. What happens if the price is falling there to 120$? Then you loose. How could then arbitrage-trading a possibility at Bitcoin-environment if there such large delays for validating each transaction?

You can have reserves on all the exchanges, that will allow you to execute orders in opposite directions simultaneously... And after that you transfer funds and wait for 3 hours... and then do it again, etc.

Exactly.  You need bitcoins on all exchanges ready to sell (for me, Bitfloor and MtGox).

This happens because its a PITA to put money inside BTC-E... Main reason to use BTC-E atm is to trade LTCs with BTCs or visa versa