user14103: Ive been looking around at the prices for bitcoins at various different exchanges and they all seem to have slightly (or wildly) different prices, why?
Thanks.

user-1: This behavior is not unique to Bitcoin, but you can see it more obviously because the volatility is very high.
The price is also different on Forex for say EUR/USD conversion depends on which market you are trading, but because volume is so high and volatility low we almost don't notice the price difference.

user12616: Economically speaking, this can only happen if the expected cost and risk in arbitrage outweigh the expected profit. Arbitrage, in this case, would be buying coins on a cheap site and selling on an expensive one. The risk comes from the high volitility and long confirmation time. In the hour or so it takes to transfer the coins from one site to the other, it's very possible that the price could have dropped enough that you end up losing money. The  aforementioned risk is why no one has tried to take advantage of the price differences and (as a result) equalized the price.

14103: <p>Ive been looking around at the prices for bitcoins at various different exchanges and they all seem to have slightly (or wildly) different prices, why?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>
 -1: <p>This behavior is not unique to Bitcoin, but you can see it more obviously because the volatility is very high.</p>

<p>The price is also different on Forex for say EUR/USD conversion depends on which market you are trading, but because volume is so high and volatility low we almost don't notice the price difference.</p>
 12616: <p>Economically speaking, this can only happen if the expected cost and risk in arbitrage outweigh the expected profit. Arbitrage, in this case, would be buying coins on a cheap site and selling on an expensive one. The risk comes from the high volitility and long confirmation time. In the hour or so it takes to transfer the coins from one site to the other, it's very possible that the price could have dropped enough that you end up losing money. The  aforementioned risk is why no one has tried to take advantage of the price differences and (as a result) equalized the price.</p>
