Same units before you get excited

Half of the loud gaps between venues turn out to be a difference in units of measurement, not in price.

Where false finds come from

Comparing two prices looks simple: this much here, that much there, so the gap is this. But behind each price sit conditions you have to line up first.

The first is contract size. One venue's contract covers one coin, another's covers ten, or a hundredth of one. The prices in your table differ by multiples, and that isn't an opportunity — those are different units.

The second is how often the venue charges you for holding the position. One charges every eight hours, another every hour. Raw rates can't be compared: you have to put them on the same clock, or your conclusion comes out backwards.

The third is whether it's even the same coin. A short ticker isn't unique, and two completely different projects can happily live under one name on two venues.

How it's done

Start by checking for multiples. If the prices differ not by a few percent but by a factor of ten or a hundred, it's almost certainly different things or different units, and there's no point counting further.

Then put every rate on the same clock — usually per day or per hour — and only then compare.

And make sure both sides agree on the outside details: same contract, same meaning, same coin. Matching names prove nothing.

What usually comes out

That the big discrepancies grow out of carelessness. And the arithmetic is fine — the mistake was made earlier, in which numbers were being compared at all.

What makes this kind of mistake dangerous is that it produces a believable result. Not absurd — believable: the gap is large, but not so large that you stop and doubt it.

What this does not tell you

Matching units and the same coin don't mean the gap is takeable. They only mean it's real.