There's no official "Bitcoin price". The price you see is usually from just one exchange. But there are more than 187 exchanges. They all have different prices. Often very different.
Get the lowest price when you buy. Get the highest price when you sell.
What if you buy low and immediately sell high? Immediate profit. That's arbitrage.
That's just one trade. In hours or days. Repeat as desired. With crypto arbitrage, you know your buy and sell prices in advance. Skip bad trades. See the current crypto arbitrage opportunities.Arbitrage has huge advantages:
A big plus is, you make more money when the market's volatile. That's when the spreads between exchanges are best.
Arbitrage isn't like long term investments. It's a lot more work. But it's a lot more profitable. And usually much safer.
Start with 3 candidate exchanges with low buy prices and 3 with high sell prices.
Don't worry. You can change your exchanges whenever you like.
Carefully check the reputation of any exchange before you do business. Some great sources of information about exchanges:
Here's how to evaluate exchanges.
Regularly review your current choices.
Only accept exchanges with :
Great prices. Here are the exchanges with great prices right now.
No exchange has both great buy prices and sell prices at the same time. They would lose money.
You want to buy from one exchange for a great buy price. Then quickly sell to another exchange at a great sale price. Choose some exchanges for buy prices, and some for sell prices.
To get the best deals, you need to see prices from as many exchanges as you can.
Good reputation. Review your reputation research for warnings. Withdrawal delays and frozen accounts are bad news.
Low fees. Low fees are critical. Sometimes your total expenses are more than you would make on a trade. Of course you don't make that trade. Every expense makes it harder to make money. Exchange fees are usually your biggest expense. Track all your expenses. Lower them as much as you can.
Low fee exchanges are generally a better choice. But be sure you understand how they make their money. For example, they may make money by lending to you. Using borrowed money greatly increases your risk. It's also a huge expense that can make you miss otherwise good trades.
Make minimum deposits at the exchanges you choose. Restrict the money you put at risk until you have confidence in the exchange.
Of course, don't invest more than you are willing to lose. Never give all your capital to a single exchange.
TopArb Trader lets you privately execute all of your orders. It's a single app that works with all of your accounts. Just select each exchange where you have a trading account.
Your account credentials are stored on your system. TopArb does not have them. We don't track how much you buy, sell or which currencies you trade.
Use limit orders and start with small transactions.
Some exchanges play games. Occasionally it's extreme, like switching a "Buy" order to a "Sell" order. Make small trades until you are confident that an exchange handles your orders as you expect.
If you need to buy or sell a large amount, do it in parallel at different exchanges. If you must use a single exchange for a large amount, do it in smaller increments.
Before you send or receive a large amount, always move a small amount first using all the same data. If things don't go perfectly, everyone will be calmer.
Leave as little as you can on deposit at any exchange. Consider a reputable escrow agent for larger amounts.
A trade is good if you trust the exchanges and you are likely to make money. You are likely to make money if the gross profit you expect to make on the trade is more than all the expenses added together. The total of all your expenses is called "carrying cost".
If you borrow money for a trade, that's usually your biggest cost. These loans are called margin, leverage or gearing.
Be sure to consider all expenses. Exchanges can get creative with fees: deposit, transaction, trading, network, wire, foreign exchange, withdrawal, etc. Of course your gross profit has to be higher than your total expenses.
Prices may change between the time you place your order and when it is executed. There may be unexpected delays. This "slippage" is normal. Limit orders, which are only executed at a price you specify, greatly reduce slippage risk. TopArb Trader defaults to limit orders.
Trading with borrowed money greatly increases your potential profit and your potential risk. "Margin", "leverage", or "gearing" are the marketing terms. It's a loan. It's also an extra expense that makes you miss otherwise good trades.
Leverage sounds great, but as Warren Buffet says, "Leverage is addictive." It's the most common way that experts go broke.
Let's make sure you understand the risks.
When an exchange lets you trade on margin, its losses are just on paper until you withdraw your profit. But when you lose, they can seize your real assets. That means loans are a huge money maker for exchanges. Usually it's a terrible deal for you. Of course exchanges know this. That's why they call it "margin", "leverage", or "gearing" instead of a loan.
If you borrow money to trade, that's very likely your biggest expense. It makes you miss out on a lot of otherwise good trades. You can't make the trade because your expenses are higher than your gross profit.
Some trading businesses trick you into trading on margin.
Unless you really know what you're doing, don't pick an exchange just because of their margin trading. For the vast majority of traders, borrowed money is a very bad idea.
Trade as fast as you can. Stay careful. But take advantage of every good trade as soon as you can.
A single arb trade may not make much. But it's safer because you know your buy and sell prices in advance.
And arbitrage trades are usually complete in hours or days. So with arbitrage, you can trade frequently with much less risk than traditional trading.
When you trade more frequently, compounding undergoes a magical transformation. You get more compounding periods in the same calendar time.
Your money can grow fast.
With arb done right, there's no trading risk.
That's your single biggest risk. Gone.
It's the closest strategy to Warren Buffett's Rules:
Rule #1: Never lose money.
Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1.
From the London School of Economics, via Harvard Law:
"There are large and recurring deviations in bitcoin prices that open up across different exchanges and often persist for several hours, and, in some instances, days and weeks."
"Transaction costs . . . are small in comparison to the arbitrage spreads."
Source: Trading and Arbitrage in Cryptocurrency Markets by Igor Makarov with London School of Economics and Antoinette Schoar with MIT
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