Topic: How do you trade on MtGox? (Read 1277 times)

Not sure how 0.6 percent equals a number 0.994, but it's 0.2, not 0.14 to make a profit.

Example:Buy 0.188 bitcoins for 10.75, (0.188*0.994=0.186872) I must sell these 0.186 at a minimum of 10.95(0.186*10.95=2.0367). 2.0367*0.994 = 2.0244798.

You must be doing your calculation incorrectly.

When buying 0.189 BTC you will end up with 0.187866 BTC or more (maximum fee is 0.6%, so 0.189 BTC X 0.994 yields 0.187866 BTC).

So to break even you need to sell at about 14 cents more than you bought (at this $11 price range).  So if you paid $10.70 you should be able to sell above $10.84 and begin to make a profit from trading.  

The spreads are narrower than that so if there isn't price volatility there is little opportunity to profit from the exchange rate moving in your favor.

There are, however, differences in price between exchanges.   The last BTC/USD trade at BitMe was $11 and the last BTC/USD trade at Camp BX was for $10.69.  There's a little opportunity if you could be the party that does both of those trades.  The problem is that you don't want to expose yourself to risk of the exchange rate moving against you after trading at one exchange -- so generally you only do the trade if you can make profit doing both trades at the same time. That's a harder opportunity to find.  Then another problem is the delay and cost in moving the USD proceeds to "restock" then.  (You can do this with BitMe by withdrawing to ACH, and then when those USDs hit your bank you can use Dwolla to pull the funds and send them to Camp BX ... it can be over a week round trip.)

That buying at one exchange and selling at another is called market arbitrage.  And it is relatively free from risk of the exchange rate being volatile because you execute trades at both exchanges at the same time.  Right now when there's relative exchange rate stability there's not much opportunity in arbitrage.   But after a bit of volatility, there can be moves where a 5% gain, or 10% or greater gain even can be obtained.  The trick is in having funds at the ready to take advantage of the opportunity when one exists.    And with Bitcoin exchanges, that's actually harder than it would seem to be.

So, there's no magic source of free money from trading.  It takes capital (oftentimes, like today, left idle ... just sitting there waiting for a better opportunity) and patience (knowing when to take an opportunity versus the likelihood of there being an even greater one coming), and effort, risk, and perseverance  (yes, oftentimes you keep $400 USD sitting at a third tier exchange for a couple weeks just for the opportunity to earn a $10 profit when that's the only opportunity that presented itself.)

I've recently taken an interest in day trading. Buy low, sell high. The problem on mtgox comes largely from the fees.

I have 2.02USD in my account. I can buy 0.189 bitcoins for say 10.70. With the fee added, I only get 0.183. I must sell these coins at a minimum of 11.10(fee added to sell as well) to get my USD worth back with some bare minmum of profit.
And since the price rarely fluctuates between 10.70 and 11.10...this is almost close to impossible. So how do other people do it?