Buy BTC at one exchange, sell it more expensive at another?

[gamer455]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

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[TryNinja]

Of course it's possible. The only real issue is the confirmation time to send BTC from an exchange from another and maybe fees depending on which kind of trade you are trying to do and which exchange you are using.

Most of the time this simple doesn't work because the price may readjust before your coins reach the second exchange, and in the end you will end up losing money or selling for the same price you bought the coins.

I believe some poeple not only do this. But they also have automated bots to do this kind of trade between exchanges.

[bouren]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

As time escaping and bitcoin becoming more popular, most of the time bitcoin prices remain quite similar in international markets with little variations ranging $50-60.
Moreover, owing to confirmation time and fees cost, it may result you in loss till it reaches the other wallet.
What I suggest is to try this strategy for other coins which have huge fluctuations over exchanges by comparing markets instantly on coinmarketcap.

[Qartada]

This is called arbitrage trading.

Problems:

-Large buy/sell spread takes a huge chunk out of the potential profits.
-It takes a long time to deposit/withdraw, in which time Bitcoin's volatility could screw you over.
-Trading fees.

You'll find that you can only succeed in this if you have a lot of money and a solid strategy.  The problem is that the price will just even out when this is possible because everyone else has the same idea - often arbitrage trading is not actually very profitable.

[arimamib]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Of course many people are doing it. It is called arbit.

[ivanst776]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

It doesn't work always, what are the challenges in this is that you may be faced with delays of withdrawing the money from one exchange and depositing to another one.

Delay on both sides including the blockchain confirmation time, you know that sometimes it can take days if the transaction fee is low.

[gentlemand]

There is always a reason for such a spread. If it was easy the price gap would vapourise in seconds. It's usually down to fiat banking. There are whole markets that are cut off from foreigners, other places like BTC-e it's because the fees are so high and they use third party payment processors.

[olubams]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This is very much possible to be done but for me I no longer thinks it worth the stress because at the end of the day one might end up making a loss considering the margin of the reputable exchange sites is not always much and it changes rapidly without any form of notification. Aside that the fees of transferring this coin from one exchange to the other might even erode the little profit and finally the wait period for it to confirm which might even render everything useless by the time it finally drops in the destination wallet, the price has dropped generally across board.

[jak3]

yes it is a method followed by many traders ever i follow it sometime. i keep some of my balance in two different exchanges and i buys from one exchange and sells from another. its a bit of pain thought because we have to constantly keep track of everything and even small mistakes can bring huge losses. so just be careful while doing this.

[Vishnu.Reang]

I would advice you to stay away from this practice. One of my friends tried this, and he lost a huge amount of money in it. The incident happened in 2014. He was purchasing Bitcoins in BTC-e, and then selling them in Mt Gox. At that time, the spread between BTC-e and Mt Gox was considerable, sometimes reaching $50 to $100 per coin. However, he never received the money for the Bitcoin sales in Mt Gox, as that site closed down in 2014 March.

[rockem5]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

This is actually a very viable way of making money off trading. You just need to know what you're doing. it's called "Arbitrage".

[stompix]

yes it is a method followed by many traders ever i follow it sometime. i keep some of my balance in two different exchanges and i buys from one exchange and sells from another. its a bit of pain thought because we have to constantly keep track of everything and even small mistakes can bring huge losses. so just be careful while doing this.

And what do you when you go completely empty on btc on one exchange?
You have to buy from the other. And if the price goes up your actually ending up doing the same thing on both.

The good part is that at least you have not put all your eggs in a basket gox crushing machine.
Having all your funds sitting like ducks on exchanges is just like asking for trouble.

This is actually a very viable way of making money off trading. You just need to know what you're doing. it's called "Arbitrage".

And it's also a pretty viable way of falling into a trap. Be it bull or beartrap or goxtrap.

[Patinix]

It is possible, but fees and time make it non-pratical, unfortunately.

[erikalui]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Check the charts before buying and selling bitcoins at exchanges. Here it is: https://bitcoincharts.com/markets/

BTC-e has the lowest price while GDAX/Bitbay offers a high price but you need to take into account the trading fee as well as the deposit/withdrawal fee which can exceed your profit margin. Also, some exchanges have a limit for withdrawals and also the profit margin will be less than $100 per BTC. Only if the bitcoin price rises, the profit margin would increase. Verification is a must on these exchanges.

[hosseinimr93]

The problem is transaction time. But It can work. You should have the coin in two or more exchanges. Sell and buy the coins in two exchange simultaneously. Then withdraw form one exchange to another and make the balance again. Assume you have one coin in exchange number 1 and one coin  in exchange number two. Sell your coin in exchange number 1 and buy in exchange number 2. Then withdraw one coin from exchange number 2 to exchange number 1.

[coolcoinz]

It used to be much easier back when the transactions were confirming in 15 min and fees were at half of today's prices. I've been doing it from time to time, but I don't recommend sending from one exchange to another because it might be hard to prove you own the sending address in case your balance doesn't get updated. This means you have to send from exchange 1 to your wallet and to exchange 2, which is going to take about an hour and cost you a few $.

[freebutcaged]

Not possible any more mate, time has past when you could conveniently transact Bitcoin between several exchanges without losing %5 of your

Bitcoins as mining fees, and now exchanges are more smart than before, they now set their withdrawal fees as high as it gets that only doing

Arbitration trades makes sense if the difference in price is more than %10 but when you manage to deposit there it's already too late.

[swogerino]

Many people have done this in the past where the volatility of bitcoin was notable. Now it is stable in the mid 2500 dollars range and considering the high fees of withdrawals from exchanges together with slower and slower confirmation time it is not something it can be done easily anymore. Still is the same as arbitrage in sport betting if you have the knowledge, you have the edge over the exchanges. You need to be all day in front of a computer to have a small chance of doing this though.

[lite]

Hey there,

is it possible to buy BTC cheaply at one exchange and sell it more expensive at another one? It seems to me that it might be actually possible.

What are challenges? Are people doing this?

Thank you!

Well, it is possible! ATM there's $50 difference between Btc-e and Bitstamp, but arbitraging BTC is painful. long confirmation hours may kill your chance. better do it with altcoin which has faster confirmation time.

[Sowik]

Calculate the fees, the waiting time for confirmation and see yourself.
Or just do it and see yourself if it is possible.