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Blackbird: Bitcoin arbitrage

(github.com)
298 points vega_empire | 3 comments | 23 Dec 17 12:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.015s | source
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ilitirit ◴[23 Dec 17 15:43 UTC] No.15994547[source]▶
BTC arbitrage is very risky due to transaction times, volatility, and volume. And it's often not worth it depending on your region due to potentially high fees. It's not something I would recommend to people who have never done it before.

As an experiement, go on to a site like CoinMarketCap. Click on BTC->Markets. Sort by price. It looks like a ton of arbitrage opportunities, right? Well... now try to take advantage of it.

replies(1): >>15995627 #
1. valuearb ◴[23 Dec 17 18:57 UTC] No.15995627[source]▶
The OP claims their system isn’t affected by transfer times. Read it and tell us what you think.
replies(1): >>15995959 #
2. makomk ◴[23 Dec 17 19:59 UTC] No.15995959[source]▶
Of course it's affected by transfer times, it just takes some thought to understand why. Ultimately, in order for this to close out the position for a profit, the prices have to converge for long enough, and in order for that to happen reliably someone has to do arbitrage the slow way by transferring money. While you're waiting for that to happen, you're paying interest on the short position and exposed to the risk of a price increase causing a margin call that liquidates your short at a loss. The amount of profit you can make is also limited by the time it takes for the prices to converge.
replies(1): >>16022580 #
3. disiplus ◴[28 Dec 17 15:43 UTC] No.16022580[source]▶
it does not work like that, it requires you to have "money" or the ability to short/long at all exchanges and then u simply buy/sell locally.