Arbitrage and Liquidity, the three trades that enforce one price
Classic, triangular, and latency arbitrage, the riskless trades that enforce one price, and why they all live or die on speed and liquidity.
A 5.5 minute animated lesson on arbitrage and liquidity, the force that keeps the same asset at the same price across markets. Built for FIN301 students at Western Sydney University and for anyone meeting market microstructure for the first time.
The video walks through three kinds of arbitrage. Classic arbitrage buys low and sells high on the same asset, buy at $50 and sell at $70 for a riskless $20. Triangular arbitrage rings a currency loop, USD to EUR to GBP and back to USD, turning $1,000 into $1,188. Latency arbitrage trades the microseconds between a fast venue and a slow one, NASDAQ at $250.10 against a slow venue at $250.00 for $0.10 a share. All three are the same idea, a price that has not yet equalised.
The punchline is that every one of these trades lives or dies on speed and liquidity. A mispricing only pays if you can act on it before it closes, and whoever provides the liquidity that lets others trade gets paid for it through the maker rebate. Pair the video with the Atlas concept page for the order-book detail, a worked example, a quick quiz, and citations.