What's up with arbitrage

[gopnik]

I am not sure what other ways there would be to actually perform this in order to profit, but wouldn't doing arb with existing balances on exchanges work in a similar fashion than waiting for the funds to be deposited?

Exactly. All the posts here are commenting about transferring deposits to different exchanges. That's not how to do arb, and of course you'll lose money like that. You should have balances in all pairs on all exchanges you intend to arbitrage with beforehand, and then do the arbitration at the exact same time (buy order on one exchange, sell order on the other with no delay). The only time you'd then transfer between the exchanges is much later when funds from one pairing have depleted, or you want to cash out a little.

even this strategy doesn't make sense today because you have unlimited currency exposure
arb bots can make you richer in btc or eth but your total net worth in fiat won't change so what's the point?

bitcoin is down 35% since january 1 and falling further every week, so why would one hold any crypto when regulators are about to crack down big time

[alani123]

This uppurtunity seems to be very unreliable in the last few days. Perhaps due to the falling price but at least there is no consistency in the price difference these days as it used to be. I'll keep watching it though.

[Silberman]

It looks easier than it in reality is. In most cases people struggle with the strict verification policies of exchanges, where they get demotivated due to all the negative aspects connected to that.

Aside from that we also have the markets that go up and down in such a quick fashion, that by the time you plan to strike, the opportunity has already vanished, where you have money stuck on whatever exchange.

Money that you could have used to benefit from whatever price swing this market is generously throwing with. That of course doesn't mean that no one is doing it, but if the mass jumped on it, the differences were gone already.

Incentive isn't really there.

There is no way for a human to pull that off anymore, you will need arbitrage bots to do it for you, and those are costly and difficult to configure, any mistake you make is going to cost you a fortune and a lot of time to recover, that is why arbitrage is not an strategy that is so common despite the apparent benefits that we can get, besides that assumes that the exchanges are going to pay you fast and we know that some exchanges are taking weeks to process a withdrawal.

[Fatunad]

It looks easier than it in reality is. In most cases people struggle with the strict verification policies of exchanges, where they get demotivated due to all the negative aspects connected to that.

Aside from that we also have the markets that go up and down in such a quick fashion, that by the time you plan to strike, the opportunity has already vanished, where you have money stuck on whatever exchange.

Money that you could have used to benefit from whatever price swing this market is generously throwing with. That of course doesn't mean that no one is doing it, but if the mass jumped on it, the differences were gone already.

Incentive isn't really there.

There is no way for a human to pull that off anymore, you will need arbitrage bots to do it for you, and those are costly and difficult to configure, any mistake you make is going to cost you a fortune and a lot of time to recover, that is why arbitrage is not an strategy that is so common despite the apparent benefits that we can get, besides that assumes that the exchanges are going to pay you fast and we know that some exchanges are taking weeks to process a withdrawal.

This is the issue on doing arbitrage things which transfers would either be instant or not depending on the coin you are transacting and depending on which exchange you are in. I agree on the thing you do said that some of them would possibly take some days or weeks to get such withdrawal which this would really be a big problem on doing arbitrage because any delays would really cost you money.

[eaLiTy]

Has anyone in been observing this craze lately? Basically certain exchanges will have consistent price differences with other major ones. I'm not talking Bitfinex, which is probably done for, but pretty much all else known to be reliable exchanges.

I'm wondering, isn't there any pressure to close such gaps in the price? it's really a good chance for traders to profit with arbitrage but I really can't fathom how those gaps remain open for hours.

Since there are literally a lot of exchanges expect these sort of price gaps,the main risk involved with these sort of arbitrage trade is that,it is really impossible to send or receive the coins in time,there was a time when you were able to get faster transaction even with bitcoin and alt coin and i used to take advantage of this price difference,but now that is not the case,even if you send an ETH based token,some exchanges ask for thirty confirmation,which will take hours to confirm which negates the profit.

[--DarkSecrets--]

Has anyone in been observing this craze lately? Basically certain exchanges will have consistent price differences with other major ones. I'm not talking Bitfinex, which is probably done for, but pretty much all else known to be reliable exchanges.

I'm wondering, isn't there any pressure to close such gaps in the price? it's really a good chance for traders to profit with arbitrage but I really can't fathom how those gaps remain open for hours.

I notice it herein i am worried because when i tried some amounts transfer fron the exchange i used to buy from one another it was a really hard time and sometimes some alts had been hold for withdrawals so instead of making profits it is a loss. I have many factors concerning to arbitrage. The price difference makes an attractibe but the majority is not good one to do. The gap of price and the time in transferring is also a bad experience at me when the deposit was arrived the price was dump already the worst cases.

[Silberman]

I am not sure what other ways there would be to actually perform this in order to profit, but wouldn't doing arb with existing balances on exchanges work in a similar fashion than waiting for the funds to be deposited?

Exactly. All the posts here are commenting about transferring deposits to different exchanges. That's not how to do arb, and of course you'll lose money like that. You should have balances in all pairs on all exchanges you intend to arbitrage with beforehand, and then do the arbitration at the exact same time (buy order on one exchange, sell order on the other with no delay). The only time you'd then transfer between the exchanges is much later when funds from one pairing have depleted, or you want to cash out a little.

Which is another limitation for this strategy, in order to obtain significant profits the amount of money you need to risk is huge, a trader can get huge profits by investing a small amount of money in the right coin at the right time, but with arbitrage, you need to have a huge amount of money to obtain small profits, and those profits get even smaller when you get into account transactions fees and the fees of the exchange.

[Oilacris]

I am not sure what other ways there would be to actually perform this in order to profit, but wouldn't doing arb with existing balances on exchanges work in a similar fashion than waiting for the funds to be deposited?

Exactly. All the posts here are commenting about transferring deposits to different exchanges. That's not how to do arb, and of course you'll lose money like that. You should have balances in all pairs on all exchanges you intend to arbitrage with beforehand, and then do the arbitration at the exact same time (buy order on one exchange, sell order on the other with no delay). The only time you'd then transfer between the exchanges is much later when funds from one pairing have depleted, or you want to cash out a little.

Which is another limitation for this strategy, in order to obtain significant profits the amount of money you need to risk is huge, a trader can get huge profits by investing a small amount of money in the right coin at the right time, but with arbitrage, you need to have a huge amount of money to obtain small profits, and those profits get even smaller when you get into account transactions fees and the fees of the exchange.

If you do really like to feel profits on arbitrage trading then you would really need big funds in able to feel it because doing it on smaller funds would really be not worth it considering on the fees on each transactions been made it will surely affect. Price differences or gaps on any exchanges do really occur and as a trader its up to you if you would take the risk on doing it or not.

[Freegan]

I have also found great arbitrage opportunities in different exchanges that I use, but delays in transactions and sometimes the disadvantageous fees are a great impediment to carry out the arbitrage in an efficient and profitable way. Some occasions I have observed variations of up to 30% for several hours, but when I tried to carry out the exchange, the three-hour delay that took me that transaction made the opportunity absolutely inconvenient.

[cryptowolfsu]

The possibility for arbitrage trading is there, but the execution part is more difficult as we have to take into
consideration the small liquidity of the market at some coins, different transaction and withdrawal fees ,
transaction time. All this is more realistic to be calculated and realized fast by trading bots.