Author

Topic: Explanations for the differences between USD and non-USD bitcoin prices. (Read 1566 times)

zby
legendary
Activity: 1594
Merit: 1001
Have you normalized the prices against forex? The USD is certainly fluctuating all on its own.
I mostly used the Google exchange rates - sometimes I checked them against consumer exchange services - that is http://www.ukforex.co.uk/ and https://cinkciarz.pl/ - to know the actual price I could get, but the differences there were not significant.  I also tried some arbitrage - but with simple moving money around the losses on withdrawing funds from Mtgox (with SEPA - more than 5%, nearly 10% in the case when I moved the money directly to PLN) nullified all gains.  For me it looks like people are in fact withdrawing funds from Mtgox by moving bitcoins to other exchanges.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 251
FirstBits: 168Bc
Have you normalized the prices against forex? The USD is certainly fluctuating all on its own.
zby
legendary
Activity: 1594
Merit: 1001
Who said it's random? ... depending on the current trend direction it would either be below or above the market.

yeah it's either boy or a girl random, same way prices go up or down random Smiley

If prices depend on the current trend direction - they are not random - and this is different from boy/girl births which are random.


Your question has been perfectly answered - price lags because of low volume. Low volume means bigger volatility, so naturally other exchanges would have price jumping around mtgox average, depending on the current trend direction it would either be below or above the market.

Additional data - TradeHill does not visibly lag after mtgox in the way you describe.  It fluctuates around the mtgox price but it has not been consistently below mtgox for a month despite the current trend direction.  It does not seem to be simply about volatility.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1010
Borsche
yeah it's either boy or a girl random, same way prices go up or down random Smiley
zby
legendary
Activity: 1594
Merit: 1001
Who said it's random?
It's the same reason smaller hospitals have more days on which only boys are born.
Isn't that hospital model about a random process?
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1010
Borsche
Who said it's random? Your question has been perfectly answered - price lags because of low volume. Low volume means bigger volatility, so naturally other exchanges would have price jumping around mtgox average, depending on the current trend direction it would either be below or above the market.
zby
legendary
Activity: 1594
Merit: 1001
It's the same reason smaller hospitals have more days on which only boys are born.
I don't agree - this is not random, the european markets (EUR, GBP and PLN, I did not follow ruble) all act in unisono.
legendary
Activity: 1596
Merit: 1012
Democracy is vulnerable to a 51% attack.
It's the same reason smaller hospitals have more days on which only boys are born.
zby
legendary
Activity: 1594
Merit: 1001
During the last big rally in May and June the non-USD markets had higher prices than mtgox - now it is in reverse.  Any speculations on this?
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