I needed $320 so I went to western union and got 66,560 pesos for $314.70 (211.5 pesos/$). Then I went to a cueva and purchased $320 for 66,560 pesos (208 pesos/$). I spent $314.70 to get $320. WHAT
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The thing is, both western union and the cueva presumably made money off of me - so where did the extra $5.30 come from????
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Why did you need to change dollars - pesos - dollars, just to get +6 usd difference?
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I wasn't trying to make $6, I just needed $320 to make a deposit. The only way to get USD in Argentina is to buy it on the black market. So, I sent myself some pesos via western union and used them to buy dollars on the black market. But I should have lost money, not gained it!
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Are there currency controls these days in Argentina? If so, was your initial transaction sending dollars into Argentina? If both are true, then perhaps you should have made more?
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Eh, at "only" a 1.7% profit it's not really worth my time to do it unless I purchase $10,000 from a cueva, which I think would be very difficult or impossible. But I'm surprised that the cueva would sell me dollars for so little, surely it's worth THEIR time to do this arb?
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Replying to @deapthoughts @tomigeme
Was suggesting that maybe your profit should have been >1.7%

May 18, 2022 · 11:29 AM UTC

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Replying to @davidbaron @tomigeme
Ah yes, if I had bought dollars using the official rate, I would have made much more. But that's tightly controlled. These rates, however, are both unofficial or at least not controlled by the gov, so it's weird that the bid/ask crossed like this.
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