Post
Topic
Board Trading Discussion
Re: arbitrage problems
by
Kemarit
on 31/01/2019, 12:58:49 UTC
So I decided last week and have found it to be a case "works on Paper"
I noticed an exchange with a BCH/USDT 50% higher than coinbase's price for BCH so eyes watering bought some as a test. It was just 50€ to see if it worked. It did not. The problem was the other exchanges BCH wallet was down so i couldn't deposit it in.

Whenever you notice huge price gaps like this, there's usually an underlying reason. Usually it means a coin can't be withdrawn from the exchange. It could be due to shady "wallet maintenance" that lasts for weeks, or it could be due to insolvency where the exchange just disables withdrawals.

Since traders couldn't withdraw BCH, they were desperate to sell it for another asset (like USDT or BTC). In other words, arbitrage is impossible. When arbitrage is possible, the price gap among exchanges should be very small because arbitragers can actually close the gap.

In addition to that, its really hard to make a profit, if you will do it manually. These days traders usually uses bot to take advantage of every price gap. So it you think you can beat a bot by placing orders then you're wrong. So it's possible but it's hard to make a lot of profit in the end.

That was the first thing I did, formerly I often arbit in Cryptopia to Yobit
lots of wallets that have problems on Yobit
it's ridiculous, when bought coins but after that the wallet is offline Cheesy

LOL. You better stay away from that exchange. Shady and not to be trusted. Members here call them "Yoshit" and I'm sure we all know why.