Why is the the Canadian exchange almost a dollar differance from the US?

[_mr_e]

What is going on here? Why aren't people taking this as an opportunity to buy on one exchange and sell on the other and shouldn't this even things out?

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[max in montreal]

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

people do.

[inbox]

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[veken0m]

What is going on here? Why aren't people taking this as an opportunity to buy on one exchange and sell on the other and shouldn't this even things out?

It might have something to to with the fact the CAD is now worth more than USD: http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert/?Amount=1&From=CAD&To=USD

Also the recent fee increases on cavirtex make it much less profitable to do this.

[Stephen Gornick]

What is going on here? Why aren't people taking this as an opportunity to buy on one exchange and sell on the other and shouldn't this even things out?

If you have coins to sell, and don't like selling below market rate, perhaps you would like to trade with those holding cash (CAD) who don't like buying above market rate.

Put the two together and you have a win/win! Simply put up an offer and see what happens:

 - http://www.LocalBitcoins.com

[adamstgBit]

I'd say Virtex is mostly always in line with mt-gox price

when mtgox has a big move, it sometimes takes Virtex a few hours to correct itself

1000CAD -> to exchange = 994CAD
BUY  987.54CAD -> BTC = 83.12BTC after fees
SELL on mtgox 83.12BTC -> 1034.12USD after fees

1034.12USD converted to CAD through bank is 995.24 CAD
This doesn't include any fees for transferring money from exchange to your bank.

*This is just from a quick glance at both exchanges, not 100% accurate.

Arbitrage is almost never worth it.

best thing to do is buy stuff with them... since everyone use mtgox's higher rate to value the coins.

[byronbb]

The main reason is Virtex lacks an API so automated arbs are not feasible.

[kjj]

Arbitrage is almost never worth it.

It was, once.  But then people started posting about it here, and the bigger traders improved their bots to dispatch orders to multiple exchanges at the same time.  Since then, the opportunities have dried up.