Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Pricing and arbitrage: what are the requirements?
by
HabBear
on 27/01/2018, 22:13:06 UTC
I've been mulling over in my head what the requirements are for inter-exchange arbitrage to affect the price of a particular market.

This is a good question.

First, the deposit or withdrawal parameters are not relevant for identifying an arbitrage opportunity. The buy or sell price is locked in at the time you commit (click) to the order, you do not have to wait for the transaction/trade to settle to know what your buy/sell price is.

Second, you need to establish a foundation exchange to serve as you base price - let's say it's Coinbase in the US. Then you compare other exchanges to the price at Coinbase to identify your arbitrage opportunity. If you live in the US, Coinbase is probably the easiest channel for converting USD to Bitcoin and vice versa, hence my call to use Coinbase in this example.

Third, what you also need to do is have funds in the exchange where you believe arbitrage may occur in a currency OTHER than Bitcoin (or the crypto you're seeking arbitrage in). If not, then you won't be able to realize the arbitrage price if you're trading bitcoin for bitcoin. Make sense? I can explain this point further if needed.