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Out of curiosity, do you also have experience trading equities/derivatives? I largely agree with you (especially the words of caution and about buying other peo

Out of curiosity, do you also have experience trading equities/derivatives? I largely agree with you (especially the words of caution and about buying other peoples' trading infra), though I'd push back a bit on your assessment of automated trading at lower frequencies than HFT. I'm in strong agreement with you about the lack of utility for what is typically called "charting" or "technical analysis", but I don't think it would be fair to characterize all of stat arb at less than HFT timescales this way. But my experience is entirely outside cryptocurrencies, so take that for what you will. I'm just curious to hear if you're also applying this perspective outside cryptocurrency trading. If anything I'd expect it to be far easier to profitably trade cryptocurrencies these days since the space is still so inefficient.

throwawaykyok 8y ago
I have a bit of experience trading derivatives, but little compared to crypto. Everything I said was specific to crypto only. A crucial distinction between crypto and equities is direct market access. Everyone in crypto gets DMA and API access with a few clicks only. Most of the low-hanging arb fruit is thus already taken or getting harder to take and moving to higher frequencies. There are still low-frequency arb opportunities in crypto, but for many of them the edge is in efficient/safe fiat currency movement across country orders, i.e. having the right citizenships and bank accounts and clearances. In many countries it's not easy to open bank accounts for crypto trading these days. People often think there are arb opportunities in crypto when there are none because the price already includes the inefficiencies, latencies, and difficulties of moving fiat across country borders or taking money out. Also, the price often includes the risk of the exchange being hacked or running away with your money, which has happened a lot recently. So when people look at arb opportunities they often don't take into account that these risks must be reflected in the exchange prices. Sketchy exchange prices are lower due to the risk factor of having balances there. That's not the case for regulated financial markets.
- bitcoinmoney 8y ago
  Just curious how much money you made in total and you’re sharpe ratio? What about win rate and how man trades you made? We could use that to determine if you have an edge (not saying you don’t).

throwawaykyok 8y ago

I have a bit of experience trading derivatives, but little compared to crypto. Everything I said was specific to crypto only. A crucial distinction between crypto and equities is direct market access. Everyone in crypto gets DMA and API access with a few clicks only. Most of the low-hanging arb fruit is thus already taken or getting harder to take and moving to higher frequencies. There are still low-frequency arb opportunities in crypto, but for many of them the edge is in efficient/safe fiat currency movement across country orders, i.e. having the right citizenships and bank accounts and clearances. In many countries it's not easy to open bank accounts for crypto trading these days. People often think there are arb opportunities in crypto when there are none because the price already includes the inefficiencies, latencies, and difficulties of moving fiat across country borders or taking money out. Also, the price often includes the risk of the exchange being hacked or running away with your money, which has happened a lot recently. So when people look at arb opportunities they often don't take into account that these risks must be reflected in the exchange prices. Sketchy exchange prices are lower due to the risk factor of having balances there. That's not the case for regulated financial markets.

bitcoinmoney 8y ago
Just curious how much money you made in total and you’re sharpe ratio? What about win rate and how man trades you made? We could use that to determine if you have an edge (not saying you don’t).