Re-investing SBD into Steem Power? Consider skipping the Internal Market for the Exchanges.
Received a handsome payout? Looking to re-invest the SBD into Steem Power? The easiest way to do this, of course, is sell SBD to STEEM in the Internal Market, and then Power Up. Or use the "Convert to STEEM" option that takes a week. But this may not always be the best approach.
Currently, the value of STEEM is very volatile on the markets. When I started writing this post, it was as low as 0.00345, which would have made the Exchanges option a no brainer - a full 20% more than the internal market! Which is what kicked me to write this article. Since then, STEEM has gained sharply, which means the Internal Market may be the better option. Still, the principle apples - calculate for yourself which is better option at the time.
So, it's time to take advantage of it. Bear with me, this may seem convoluted, but if you have received a significant amount, this may be worth it.
The Internal Market Option
The Internal Market price for 1 STEEM is clearly stuck at $3. Due to the low spread, it's unlikely to drop any further.
Your Steem return is pretty simple - SBD earned / Price.
The Exchanges Option
You can use your Exchange of choice, but I'll use Poloniex for this post. The prices are similar elsewhere.
The first step is to transfer SBD from Steemit to Poloniex. Here's a great guide that will help you do just that.
Then, buy BTC on the BTC-SBD market.
The next step is to sell your BTC for STEEM on the BTC-STEEM market.
Finally, you get your STEEM back into Steemit - here's a guide for that.
Your STEEM return for this option will be
[(SBD earned * BTC-SBD price) / BTC-STEEM price]*0.99.
(The 0.99 is to cover the various but small fees)
At this moment, by my calculation, with STEEM having recovered a lot, you gain a measly ~2% going the Exchange route, at which point it's probably not worth jumping through the hoops. But the point is, keep an eye out and know which is the better option at that time. You may just get 20% more STEEM for the same SBD.
It's worth it if you have a lot of sbd to exchange, yeah. But for me and many others, anything under 200sbd doesn't seem to warrant all this effort. Also, the fees+ time lost doing all this+ time lost not powered up [ this has opportunity cost] might make it a negative EV course of action.
Decide for yourself.
One pro: it can familiarize you with trading, which for new people, again like myself, it's a handy thing to learn!
You are right. However, like I mentioned, 3 hours ago the gap was huge! Even if I go for the Asks prices which means this whole go-around can be completed in a few months, I would have stood to gain 20% accounting for fees and headache. That's a significant amount. At this moment, it's true, it doesn't make much sense.
But that's the thing - keep an eye out. If you see STEEM crashing on the exchanges, it's a good time to buy up STEEM that way, as the Internal Market often takes hours and days to catch up.
Vice versa is also true - if STEEM soars, the Internal Market could be the better option. I remember when STEEM went past $4, the Internal Market was still trading at $3. That's an enormous differential.
yeah. and as always.
www.steemprices.com is a good aggregator. I use it daily.
It seems to me that having a more direct method of converting SBD to Steem Power would be really beneficial. After all, doing so is a clear investment in Steemit's long term growth, so why not make it as simple as possible for users? Under the current system I imagine a lot of people are simply holding their SBD as is, especially those who don't fully understand the ins and outs of trading. It would also be good to encourage keeping it in the system rather than switching between exchanges and incurring further fees/more hassle. Maybe worth considering, @dan / @ned / @steemservices ?
I'd like to see an option say "Power Up" from SBD, which will automatically put the SBD on the market for the Asking price, and power up Steem Power directly. Of course informing the user of the process.
It would be nice if the liquidity reward actually worked properly and we ended up with extremely tight spreads on the internal market with good depth and good tracking of the peg value. Unfortunately that didn't happen so offering an easy instant market order option would result in people frequently being ripped off by bad executions.
Hopefully the market will become more liquid in time and this will become a viable option. I'm working on a few things to improve the situation.
Good to hear this. Thanks
I am one of those newbie's who was holding my SBD and just learned that it would be more beneficial to convert to Steem Power
https://steemd.com/@cloh76/i-converted-my-first-steem-dollar-earnings-to-steem-power-learning-the-ropes
Holding SBD is not necessarily bad. It earns interest and should be fairly stable over time (even if it currently has some nasty fluctuations). The thing to be aware of is that SP is a highly risky, illiquid investment (meaning you can't get your money out quickly) while SBD is liquid and most of the time should be stable. SP could certainly pay off more over time but that is not guaranteed. Study both carefully and make the decision that best fits your own situation.
Precisely, sold half the value of my assets in polo for SBD and im planningbto hold on for it just in time for the big boom
Its interesting that whales rarely hold SBD and when they do hold it, its generally a very low percentage of their wealth on the platform (source: http://steemwhales.com/).
Why do you think whales don't hold more SBD?
The total supply of SBD is about 1% of the supply of STEEM/SP. It isn't mathematically possible for whales to have a large percentage.
@liberosist
Wow man I just noticed that with a super small transfer I did.
Big jump on the price in poloniex this morning.
Good Sunday !
Even 0.1 steem is big due to steem comunity still very few . 0.1 steem can make a change . ;)
Personally I don't understand why there isn't a quick, simple option to convert our SBD directly to Steem Power. Of course there is the option of waiting a week, but that seems like forever for your SBD to be in limbo. But thanks for the alternative option. I'll keep it in mind as a back up.
The one week conversion is a bit of a head scratcher. Never made sense for me... It's either the Internal Market or the Exchanges.
the one week conversion is very useful if the steem dollar price is significantly below 1 dollar like it is now. In this case you can buy steem dollars for example 80 cents. and then convert them to steem worth of 1 dollar in one week. sell this steem and then buy new steem dollars etc. If you are luck you make 20% with this in one week. the only problem is, that it takes the average steem price of one week. so if the steem price goes down, the average one week steem price is higher then the current steem price and you will therefore get less steem for your steem dollars. I wish also, that the one week conversion time is drastically reduced, so that 1 steem dollar is worth one dollar and not 80 cents....
You are definitely right. I believe it considers the median price as quoted by the witnesses. But this is quite a risky option, and might fluctuate significantly.
thats true, its a little bit risky, but not fully. currently you can buy steem dolalrs for 80 cents. Thats 1/0.8 = 1.25
So you can make up to 25% win. In average the steem inflation per day is round about 1%, so lets say in a week 10%. So in average the price should drop 10% per week if the steem market cap stays the same. So the week average is 5% steem price drop. So in average with currently a steem dollar 80 cents you make 25%-5% = 20% win per week. Thats not too bad :)
Definitely it pays to be aware of the prices in both internal markets and exchanges. The fact that there is no fee in the internal market is a strong incentive... However It may require a bit more patience to fill your order...
The lack of fees on the IM is certainly a bonus. However, the fees on exchanges are generally pretty small, so not a major factor.
Wow nice details!!
Yep that's what I do with my SBD going on in on #steemit!
Thx @liberosist. Have been trying to understand this earlier but couldn't find an answer for it. Now I do. Very much appreciated.
The calculation would be a lot easier to make if places like Poloniex listed an SBD/STEEM rate.
Certainly! I guess they will add that in as Steem grows and it becomes one of the base currencies. Pretty sure they will replace XMR with STEEM in the coming weeks/months.
Or at least add it in. That would be good.
This worked great! Thanks for the help