[chatmasta]

That just pushes the problem to the next trade. Even if you diligently keep your accounts funded, you’ll need to rebalance them after most trades (by definition of arbitrage), so your velocity will eventually be limited.

Concretely, imagine if every ten minutes you made an arbitrage buy on GDAX, and sell on BitFinex. As long as GDAX remains the “buy side” of the arbitrage, you will need to keep refilling your fiat funds at GDAX. You could “keep it filled,” but this becomes more unsustainable as you deplete your bankroll. You will eventually need to rebalance which will affect your velocity.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional.

[hrmm1231321]

Not entirely true. If you wait for the arbitrage opportunity to occur in the reverse direction, you can rebalance. But you take the risk of waiting days/weeks for a reverse dip opportunity.

Source: I tried to make money arbitraging BTC back in 2015. I made a 2x return, entirely because of inflation, realized I didn't understand anything I was doing and pulled my 8k out. If only I had kept it in :)

[chatmasta]

I would expect that the same exchanges tend to be on the same side of arbitrage spreads, for various reasons that could include lack of liquidity.

[hrmm1231321]

If you plot them, you will see the spreads intersect now and then.

However, all the same risks apply e.g. with orders not being processed enough.

[gruez]

it's still a better situation compared to the one posed by the parent. at least now the profits are guaranteed (barring an exchange hack).