I think BTC-E should stop trading LTC/USD

[mercSuey]

It's called triangular arbitrage, it may seem trivial but it is not.

So you don't want a profit opportunity to be there for anybody else because you are to stupid/lazy to exploit it? You better deal with it.

This.  A bit harsh, but this says it all.  Same shit on Wall Street and the small investor crying about Algo traders and HFT.

[1Peter]

I dont get it, whats the point? if in the same trader you can do BTC/USD, LTC/USD and BTC/LTC, its a no brainer that the only think it do is to create a bot haven making profits from any small margin, here and there.

Maybe they see that as a good reason? After all, they make profit on all transactions..

The balance of the order book can work against you.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here.. could you explain please?

Doing that with only the last trades wouldn't work since you have to account for the liquidity in the order book to derive the real prices. I  don't really want to give you a tutorial on how to do it.

This is fascinating stuff to me even though I don't have much understanding yet.. thanks for your response.

[amgomez]

Translation: Pump and dump very dificult when tied to BTC and USD, right?

[GSnak]

All the alts should be traded USD.

[ElectricMucus]

I dont get it, whats the point? if in the same trader you can do BTC/USD, LTC/USD and BTC/LTC, its a no brainer that the only think it do is to create a bot haven making profits from any small margin, here and there.

Maybe they see that as a good reason? After all, they make profit on all transactions..

The balance of the order book can work against you.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here.. could you explain please?

Doing that with only the last trades wouldn't work since you have to account for the liquidity in the order book to derive the real prices. I  don't really want to give you a tutorial on how to do it.

This is fascinating stuff to me even though I don't have much understanding yet.. thanks for your response.

You can google triangular arbitrage, that what I did, there is a through explanation on wikipedia.

[1Peter]

You can google triangular arbitrage, that what I did, there is a through explanation on wikipedia.

I can see how the triangular arbitrage works but I wasn't quite sure what you meant by the balance of the order book can work against you.. but I think I see how that might be the case.. thanks.