Quote from: mayax on April 28, 2016, 01:41:55 PM

the arbitrage can exists on a regulate market. the fiat currencies are backed by a Central Bank. The forex companies MUST be licensed, they are verified, audited and so on.

Bitcoin maket is unregulated and so the most of the exchangers. Once, a company is not verified, it can do what ever it wants on an unregulate market.

You cannot compare the real forex market with the Bitcoin market where 90% is black market and shady exchangers

what real arbitrage can exist when ALL the big exchangers are using the Willy bot (same as MTgox) ? I think the chinesse exchangers have 80% less volume than the volume they show on their website. This is called price manipulation not arbitrage.

Willy bot increases the volume so that the potential clients to see how "big" is that exchanger and how many clients it has AND to manipulate the price for the exchanger interest too

in fact, the market is very low but the price manipulation remains.

Arbitrage can indeed exist in regulated markets. It can exist in all decentralized markets. It can even exist with centralized markets - stock prices from bucket shops during the Great Depression were the same - or very similar - to stock prices from licensed stock brokers.

Unlicensed OTC money-changers aren't licensed. Buy foreign currency on the street anywhere in the developing world and the chances are near 100% you won't be buying from a licensed money-changer. Yet mysteriously they'll charge prices similar to the prices charged by licensed exchanges.

Arbitrage has been around since forever. It existed long before governments started regulating and licensing foreign exchange.

I fail to see why some (unregulated) exchanges using bots prevents people engaging in arbitrage. There used to be a Google Docs spreadsheet showing BTC arbitrage opportunities - people used it, despite the exchanges being less regulated than today. They made money. I have no reason to think that people have stopped chasing profit, that they've stopped arbing.

Price manipulation occurs to a greater or lesser extent in all markets. It doesn't prevent arbitrage happening. If the price on one exchange is lower than another exchange, or I can buy something cheaper OTC than I could on an exchange - it will be profitable for me to buy while simultaneously selling on the second exchange. Price manipulation doesn't matter to me while I do this. Neither does volume, fake or otherwise. All that matters is the difference between the buy price and the sell price - the profit I make.

Again, "I'm not saying that there isn't a cartel operating, I really don't don't know. But this isn't evidence of it."

This is like you seeing Malory MalIntent breaking into my house one night, and the following day I wake up, realise I've been robbed, see that the sky is blue, and think to myself "The sky is blue. That's totally unexpected, therefore Malory MalIntent must have been the burglar." People are not going to think there is a scam in operation when what they're seeing is exactly what they'd expect to see.