Arbitrage's definition in Investopedia:
"Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset to profit from a difference in the price.
It is a trade that profits by exploiting the price differences of identical or similar financial instruments on different markets or in different forms.
Arbitrage exists as a result of market inefficiencies and would therefore not exist if all markets were perfectly efficient".
So, some months ago I was talking to a friend of mine about the cryptomarket.
What is the best plan? Should we hodl? Should we trade short term? What are the best coins? How can we profit the most?
You know... The same old questions typical of somebody that refreshes coin market cap at least once every hour...
After that we started talking about our lives:
Me- "So man, how's everything going with your life? Wife's doing good?"
Friend- "All is good. We're planning to go on vacation next Summer to Zimbabwe, her native country."
Me- "Oh cool man! It's always nice to know other cultures and countr... Oh wait, your wife is from Zimbabwe!"
Friend- "Yes... So what?"
Me- "You know how much is worth a Bitcoin in Zimbabwe?!"
Friend- "How much?"
Me- "Two times the value in Europe... Have you heard about Arbitrage Trading?"
Us:
And so we spent the next 2 hours studying how to take advantage of this difference of price.
All seemed so simple...
1- His wife would register in golix.io (Exchange from Zimbabwe).
2- We would buy BTC in Bitstamp.
3- We would transfer the BTC to her golix account.
4- She would sell all the BTC for an awesome price.
5- We're rich.
NOPE SMART ASS!!!!
(Note: BTC's price on coinmarketcap.com at the time of this post was 8278 US$)
To start with, the liquidity in Golix is not so high.
Second, you can only withdraw from Golix in the Zimbabwe currency and you can only trade it by USD or EUR in the black market.
Reality struck us... It was a stupid idea blinded by greed!
Reminded us that all that seems fast and easy money, it's probably not a good thing.
I mean, the plan was doable, but do I really want to commit a crime and risk my freedom just because of some easy cash?!
Not even talking about the ethical responsibilities. If Bitcoin is worth so much in Zimbabwe, it's because people really need it.
Who am I to go there and take their BTC, when I have access to dozens of exchanges all over the web? Isn't BTC suppose to help the unbanked/underbanked? So why should I do this?!
If you believe in the tech, there is absolutely no need to try and think in magic plans.
Be patient and you'll be rewarded. Only invest in what you're comfortably willing to lose.
It's possible to do legal arbitrage trading in crypto, but it's hard and demands time.
Remember, don't be a smart ass!
Hope you enjoyed this post. See you next time!
Live a happy Life and Never forget:
Buy on the dip
Never buy with FOMO
Ignore the FUD
Believe and HODL!!!! (well... actually you should take some of the profit from time to time).
Title image taken from https://iknowfirst.com/
Emoji image taken from https://www.mogicons.com/
BTC world image was taken from https://btcmanager.com/
Important note: The above post is an opinion and is for information purposes only. I'm not a financial advisor and this is not financial/investment advice.