Late last night, Steem Backed Dollars went a little silly. They trebled in value.
I’m told, from a reasonably reliable source that this is because Korea and Japan have legitimised cryptocurrency and their new exchanges offer SBD for fiat money.
They can buy it and sell it straight out of the box.
Which begs the question, why can’t I?
Which brings me to my whole, big thing problem.
As SBD skyrocketed last night, I tripped over an arbitrage opportunity. I found a few for sale on a small exchange that really isn’t built for SBD but I had noticed the day before that someone had posted a number of them for sale at a then ridiculous price.
One day later and that price was history. SBD shot past it and did not look back but whoever offered it had not pulled the sell order or increased it to reflect the current market. So I bought it.
All of it.
At a price that I would have laughed at just a day before.
Now, this little exchange doesn’t really have a fluid market for SBD. Otherwise, they would not have lasted long enough for me to remember and snatch the opportunity in both greedy paws. So I was going to have to transfer them out. They're in the form of open.SBD but I figured it was still transferrable and I’d just do a test of 1 coin to start.
That’s when I discovered that my Bittrex account was just a toy in a shiny wrapper and would require upgrading before serious use. For some reason, they wanted to know who I was and were unwilling to take my word for it.
Fine.
I dug out my driver’s license and took some photos, then took a selfie for their comparison. Complete with grimace.
They wouldn’t upload.
At this point, SBD hit over $15. Nigh on double what I paid for them and I was getting a little nervous that I might be holding these for longer than I wanted to. The idea with arbitrage is to buy, hit a higher exchange and sell fast. There’s a really serious risk in delays.
This lack of foresight on my part was beginning to chafe as much as my inability to verify my Bittrex account.
It didn’t say why they wouldn’t upload. It must have been a Friday afternoon when the error messages for this little application were written because they’re vague as hell. Almost as if the programmer’s mind was on other things. Like beer and pizza and the opposite sex.
It just said, “Unfortunately, your file could not be uploaded.” It went through the motions, filled the bar up to 100% and then just choked.
I tried another browser. Nada.
I checked the file format and size. Fine.
I renamed the files to 8.3 standard. Nope.
In desperation – it’s Friday, of course it’s fucking Friday, couldn’t happen on a sodding Tuesday, could it? – I raised a ticket and uploaded the two files at 2 pm. Thinking, shit, that’s easily long enough to get the situation resolved before the weekend.
Isn’t it?
Is. It. Fuck.
So, now I’ve got goose bumps the size of whale nipples as the cold fear of the unknown descends on me for the weekend and I watch the price start to fall. The realisation that this is not going to get resolved for another three fucking days in a 24/7 market sinks in.
I have learned some lessons from this fiasco:
If it looks too good to be true. It fucking is. Walk away! Go buy a beer and forget it.
If you’re going to do a hit and run, make sure the fucking getaway vehicle is serviced and fueled and is not going to wheeze its last breath and leave you sitting at the kerb looking like a fucking knob as the sirens get louder and louder.
Don’t try and be a smart ass. It never pans out when you try and be a smart ass. If you have to think, should I, or should I not? The answer is no! You fucking should not!
Never risk what you cannot afford to lose in its entirety. I learned this one before. This incident may be painful but it won’t keep me down. The value is not big enough to seriously damage me beyond my self-esteem. Which is dented. Badly.
Last but not least. Never get carried away by the heat of the moment. Unless you’re in bed with someone REAL nice. Then feel free. There’s a time and place for everything.
This is a cautionary tale from someone who has fucked up royally on multiple occasions and excels at making new and far more fucking exotic mistakes each and every time.
John’s an arsehole. Don’t be like John.
Update. Still can't get bittrex authorisation. It seems they have serious issues with it backdating to the summer and causing a horrendous support queue that can take more than a month to any kind of resolution from.
Luckily, SBD didn't tank too badly over the weekend and the exchange that I'd originally purchased them from threw up a couple of buyers that I managed to sell 2/3 off to. While I didn't get the $12 that bittrex was offering, I did get $10 and so a 25% profit, leaving me down only 16% or so and with SBD in hand.
All's well that ends well!