Bitcoin exchange flaw

[eshroom]

Could someone with some knowledge explain a quirk to me please:

MTGox Avg. is currently approx. £23 a bitcoin, Bitcoin-Central is £20. Can't I theoretically load up my Bitcoin-Central account with £££ buy lots of bitcoins, transfer to MTGox, cash out and make some easy, easy money? Or am I missing something?

[1714760947]

1714760947

[1714760947]

1714760947

[Blazr]

Yes you can but you'll notice the following:

a) the volume of buy orders at 23 and the volume of sell at 20 are pretty low.
b) by the time you move the BTC between the exchanges (3 confirmation wait) somebody else will have taken advantage of the arbitrage opportunity.

There are arbitrage bots that do this. Also as mentioned be careful of the exchange fees.

[eshroom]

I see. Thanks for the lightning fast responses! Makes sense. Still confused as to how bitcoin central has such a lower 24 hour avg. than MTGox though.

[Blazr]

Still confused as to how bitcoin central has such a lower 24 hour avg. than MTGox though.

People on MtGox were willing to pay money money for BTC, if they had deposited their money on bitcoin central then they would've saved themselves a bitta money.

[Stephen Gornick]

I see. Thanks for the lightning fast responses! Makes sense. Still confused as to how bitcoin central has such a lower 24 hour avg. than MTGox though.

The average doesn't matter.  What matters is what orders are on the book at any particular moment in time.

[4461462665]

Actually, I bet that there is more money lost to fees on the dollar side than on the Bitcoin side. If you were instead arbitraging two digital currencies, it would probably be easier to turn a profit.