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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 $1 million and use any starting difference you want, If that's any easier for you.
The price on btc-e doesn't matter when you deposit btc but have to buy it back later. The only way you could make profit in this case is when the price goes down (on btc-e) after you sold, so you can buy back more btc. But this has nothing to do with arbitrage.
ok.
Btce is at 1000 and Bitstamp at 1050
You send 1
BTC so Bitstamp so you get 1050 then you buy 1
BTC at btce.
You won 50$. Easy life.
You can do it the other way around. You send 1000$ to btce. You buy 1
BTC. 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.