BTC-E price difference

[lite]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

Arbitraging between btc-e and bitstamp/bitfinex could only be possible if you could get your money quickly in/out of your bank account, it would probably take 2-3 days to deposit/withdraw money into your bank account.(you should also take a look into fees) if the price drops by then you won't be able to take advantage of the price difference.  

[pawel7777]

...
Hmm... nice try but that's not exactly what he described is it? :3

I mean in your scenario both sites have the same basic price but bitstamp price rises faster! So of course it would be stupid to use btc e and not bitstamp. But what he describes and where arbitrage trader earn money is in the same situation but with and already existing difference! Consider that bitstamp is at 1020 when btc e is at 1000 and then keep the same price rise as before then you'll see it's more profitable to do the arbitrage.

SHOW ME YOUR MATH. I dare you. Do a simulation. You send BTC1 to btc-e then what? You can even ignore the fees to keep it simple. Fuck, you can even assume Bitstamp price going to $1 million and use any starting difference you want, If that's any easier for you.

The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.

[BitHodler]

The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.

You are definitely right here. I should have included more details at the time I was writing that post. That should have made things more clear.

Today there was such an opportunity as well. I sold at $1046 on BTC-E today, and bought back at $1015 at the time a huge red candle was forming. All that in a very short time. I then sold these coins at $1100 at Bitstamp.

It was meant as an example of how to get fiat in your BTC-E account as well. I didn't state that it had anything to do with arbitrage trading. Hope that clears things up.

[mainpmf]

...
Hmm... nice try but that's not exactly what he described is it? :3

I mean in your scenario both sites have the same basic price but bitstamp price rises faster! So of course it would be stupid to use btc e and not bitstamp. But what he describes and where arbitrage trader earn money is in the same situation but with and already existing difference! Consider that bitstamp is at 1020 when btc e is at 1000 and then keep the same price rise as before then you'll see it's more profitable to do the arbitrage.

SHOW ME YOUR MATH. I dare you. Do a simulation. You send BTC1 to btc-e then what? You can even ignore the fees to keep it simple. Fuck, you can even assume Bitstamp price going to $1 million and use any starting difference you want, If that's any easier for you.

The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.

ok.

Btce is at 1000 and Bitstamp at 1050
You send 1BTC so Bitstamp so you get 1050 then you buy 1BTC at btce.

You won 50$. Easy life.

You can do it the other way around. You send 1000$ to btce. You buy 1BTC. You send it to bitstamp. You sell it and get 1050. You won 50$

All I'm saying is that it's complicated to actually profit from that because you need large funds available and also to have a price gap high enough to cover fees. That's where the difficulty is.

[ridery99]

Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges?  It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054.  The Chinese exchanges are even higher.  Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp?  I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!

You should go arb that thing

[pawel7777]

SHOW ME YOUR MATH. I dare you. Do a simulation. You send BTC1 to btc-e then what? You can even ignore the fees to keep it simple. Fuck, you can even assume Bitstamp price going to $1 million and use any starting difference you want, If that's any easier for you.

The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.

ok.

Btce is at 1000 and Bitstamp at 1050
You send 1BTC so Bitstamp so you get 1050 then you buy 1BTC at btce.

You won 50$. Easy life.

You can do it the other way around. You send 1000$ to btce. You buy 1BTC. You send it to bitstamp. You sell it and get 1050. You won 50$

All I'm saying is that it's complicated to actually profit from that because you need large funds available and also to have a price gap high enough to cover fees. That's where the difficulty is.

Thanks for explaining how arbitrage works but we all know that. You failed to notice (or just didn't bother to read) that my and BitHodler's posts relate not to arbitrage in general, but to use of bitcoins as an alternative to fiat btc-e deposits, which won't work for arbitrage (and BitHodler has already clarified on that).

[mainpmf]

SHOW ME YOUR MATH. I dare you. Do a simulation. You send BTC1 to btc-e then what? You can even ignore the fees to keep it simple. Fuck, you can even assume Bitstamp price going to $1 million and use any starting difference you want, If that's any easier for you.

The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.

ok.

Btce is at 1000 and Bitstamp at 1050
You send 1BTC so Bitstamp so you get 1050 then you buy 1BTC at btce.

You won 50$. Easy life.

You can do it the other way around. You send 1000$ to btce. You buy 1BTC. You send it to bitstamp. You sell it and get 1050. You won 50$

All I'm saying is that it's complicated to actually profit from that because you need large funds available and also to have a price gap high enough to cover fees. That's where the difficulty is.

Thanks for explaining how arbitrage works but we all know that. You failed to notice (or just didn't bother to read) that my and BitHodler's posts relate not to arbitrage in general, but to use of bitcoins as an alternative to fiat btc-e deposits, which won't work for arbitrage (and BitHodler has already clarified on that).

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Ok ok, my apologies! I absolutely didn't understand the first post in fact! For me BitHodler's post was meant to explain a use of arbitrage while getting fiat out of there!
Well that makes much more sense now. I have to admit I didn't understand why you were asking me to "do the maths" as it was pretty obvious to see the point of arbitrage (which is basically to get some profit from price differences).

Well I still maintain that arbitrage is freaking difficult!
For the rest it seems that I wasn't discussing on the right subject so obviously I was a bit out of track.