Bitcoin Arbitrage - my case study (12.12% ROI)

[ofirbeigel]

I've posted about this before asking if it's possible to actually buy "cheap" bitcoins at one exchange and sell them at a profit. Since I couldn't find any answer to my question I decide to conduct an experiment myself.

I started out by buying BTC at BTC-e at a price of $69, then moved the 0.48BTC to Gox and exchanged it back to USD. The result was that I ended up with $77.7. This made me very happy of course But after a short while I realized that it would take some times to get that money back from Gox. This means that it's not arbitrage but more like a profitable loan. It got me thinking that perhaps doing the same process but only with a more flexible exchange might still be profitable.

Here is the complete post - http://bitcoinwithpaypal.com/arbitraging-bitcoin-real-live-case-study/. I will try the same thing with a different exchange then Gox one of my next Posts.

[imrer]

Write me a message after you try that with another exchange. 

[daybyter]

Did you do this with a bot (I also did this manually).

There's the option of moving the funds back, once the spread between the rates closes. But since it's hard to hit this moment manually (usually when the rates dump), you need a bot.

Let me know, if you want to work on such a concept.

[hulk]

I've posted about this before asking if it's possible to actually buy "cheap" bitcoins at one exchange and sell them at a profit. Since I couldn't find any answer to my question I decide to conduct an experiment myself.

I started out by buying BTC at BTC-e at a price of $69, then moved the 0.48BTC to Gox and exchanged it back to USD. The result was that I ended up with $77.7. This made me very happy of course But after a short while I realized that it would take some times to get that money back from Gox. This means that it's not arbitrage but more like a profitable loan. It got me thinking that perhaps doing the same process but only with a more flexible exchange might still be profitable.

Here is the complete post - http://bitcoinwithpaypal.com/arbitraging-bitcoin-real-live-case-study/. I will try the same thing with a different exchange then Gox one of my next Posts.

More like CCC bond to keep USD with mtgox, they might go down any time.

[aminorex]

The only way to do this with mt gox is to have a furikomi account in japan.  They pay out via furikomi in short order.  If the furikomi account remits to an Everbank Yen account, you avoid bank FX rates, which are horrible.  You can directly xfer US based Yen to a US Oanda account and exchange on tight spread.

[tvbcof]

Seems to me (without putting much thought into it) that anyone with a U.S. bank account could make some free money by arbing just about any exchange but Mt. Gox against Coinbase.  Since I've been a customer and watching things a bit (about a week), the price seems better than on Bitstamp and Bitcoin-E.  In my limited experience, I've got cash in the bank the day after I sell.

Now, I hope people don't do that because I'd like the price to go up until I finish a little block of sales.  But for the long haul I'm not terribly worried about it.  I figure that the weak hands are representing a good chunk of the lower sell side on the lesser exchanges and they'll blow through their liquidity fairly quickly.  Especially now that Silk Road is gone.

I could be wrong though...I often am.