You could do that. It's not really zero risk though because the coin could drop in value. Usually (real) traders who find arbs on (real) exchanges will submit simultaneous bid/ask orders without holding the actual product. They can clear the trades later.
> if you could take a short position against the coin
How can you short it? CBOE futures only exist for one exchange. What if that exchange’s price stays steady while others crash? Or that exchange goes up while others crash, thereby triggering margin calls while you lose money? Sure, the situation will eventually rectify itself. In the short term, however, you’re broke.
Margin accounts? It seems like many crypto exchanges offer this. Isn't the example you described the perfect arb situation where you would short sell on the expensive exchange and buy on the cheap exchange?
Canada has some decent ranking schools (UofT,Waterloo,UBC,SFU,etc.) and many Canadians don't want to move to the US (plus the Canadian dollar is worth less lately).
Yes, but even if Canada has a really big pool of talented developers for its size, the base problem is Canada's population size. According this ranking (http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/universit...) Canada has 4 universities ranking in the TOP 100 for CS. The EU has 30. China has 5, and it's much cheaper.
If I look here[1] the 'much cheaper' seems not to be that much. And ofcourse on the comparison part here [2]. I am currently around close to Shanghai but I live in Europe and the prices are quite comparable to north EU/US if I would want the same living standard. In the south (GR/ES/PT) and east of the EU it is cheaper than here and I find it's also cheaper there than in Beijing if I compare living standard again.
Well, the cost of living does not matter to the company; the issue for them are the salaries. According this[1], the average salary for a software developer in Shanghai is 150k RMB. That's like 30.5k Canadian dollars. The average salary for a software developer in Vancouver is more than double of that[2].
Changing the topic... I'm not so sure if Southern Europe is cheaper than Shanghai. The two main cities of Spain rank higher in cost of living than Shanghai, according your link. I guess that defining the "cost of living" is a really complicated problem.
Yeah I think it is also who you ask. And Glassdoor is also a bit wonky; all companies I speak to here are crying they have to offer 350k-800k RMB otherwise devs (seniors) just go elsewhere. And that's Vancouver salaries.
Swaths of Waterloo and UofT grads leave Canada for better paying work in the USA. There is no lack of talent coming out of Canadian Universities. If they can't keep their own domestic talent, how do they figure they can attrack "top foreign talent"? It seems like a false flag operation to find cheaper labour.
Agreed. You try to stay in Canada for love of the country(no joke. I love it here) or just not wanting to leave familiar scene. But with insane housing market and (relatively)low wage, the temptation is strong.
Absolutely. I would love to move back to Vancouver (born+raised) but it's so expensive vs. the salary options. To be fair though, while the tech jobs in Kitchener\Waterloo pay less than SF, the cost of living is very affordable.
Housing isn't that expensive outside of Vancouver. You can buy a one bedroom condo a 2 min walk from the CN Tower for $230k to $260k USD / 300k to $350k CAD, and salaries here are lower than SF or NYC, but not by that much. Vancouver, yes, pays very poorly and has unreasonable housing prices, but that is far from all of Canada.
<300k gets you 500sqft bachelor pad. Rent is about 1500$ for bachelor, goes up to 2k for 1bed+den. I think the 30 rent rule is a great benchmark for living affordability, renting a 1bd+den is around 1700$ for downtown in a decent building.. with utility, internet etc .. make that 1800$.. ((1700+100)*12)/0.3 = 72k a year. If you're making that dt toronto, you're doing okay.
I feel like I say this all the time, but... Real houses should be expensive in a city. The whole point of a city is densification. I don't want to live around a bunch of (usually detached) houses as far as the eye can see. I want to live where everything is happening. If you want a real house with an nice mostly quiet neighbourhood with a Canadian Tire and a Boston Pizza live in Georgetown and take the Go Train.
Agreed. Think of Texas salaries vs cost of living and compare that to Toronto. I have a friend that went back to school just so that he can get a TN visa and leave for the US
Happens all the time here in Germany. Every year one gets at least three to four of these "we do not have enough talent, we need to hire foreign talent, make it easier" initiatives while at the same time people with the required education leave the country in droves. It was funny for a time, now it is just sad.
Just be glad Canada doesn't tax worldwide income for nonresidents like the US does. If they did, your cushy SV job would be much less attractive. Though the lack of snow might compensate.
I've done the math - it doesn't really make much of a difference. For both CA and NY the combination of federal and state income tax means the tax rates are actually pretty similar.
For states without state income tax, of course, that changes things.
At my present income, if Canada wanted a slice of the pie I'd owe a very small cheque to them each year. The paperwork would be more painful than the tax.
And that's assuming you maintain Canadian residency - if not then you're only on the hook for federal income tax, which is strictly going to be lower than whatever you're paying California (you only pay the difference to Canada due to tax treaty), so your total Canadian tax bill will be a whopping $0.
> And that's assuming you maintain Canadian residency - if not then you're only on the hook for federal income tax
I realize that this is a hypothetical, but FYI the CRA has rules that kick in when you're paying taxes and not a resident (e.g. you're a "deemed resident", "factual resident", etc.). Generally you will still be taxed in the province where you have significant ties or last resided.
It would not, the US has tax treaties with countries like Canada so you don't get double-taxed. The only case in which you get double taxed is if the US has no treaty with the country. The US is one of the few countries which does this and I guess it's mostly because American contractors have been enabled by the US government to do these sorts of jobs, like for instance in the Middle East, and the government feels that this warrants a cut.
> It would not, the US has tax treaties with countries like Canada so you don't get double-taxed. The only case in which you get double taxed is if the US has no treaty with the country.
This is only true for federal taxes. States aren't required to follow federal tax treaties. So California, for example, doesn't recognize any tax treaty with Canada. There are lots of ways you can wind up getting taxed twice.
Not sure how you would get double taxed this way. You only end up paying Federal tax if you are not in the country. Not State tax as you don't belong to any State.
Different countries have different rules for taxation. It's perfectly possible to be considered a resident (or deemed resident) in two places concurrently. This is frequently the case for people who split their time between multiple countries.
I know many people who have been in this position.
There is a diaspora of Vancouverites in their late 20s, early 30s here in Toronto. They left home for better employment and housing opportunities. I think we all would love to move back but it's just not worth it. Vancouver is a better city than Toronto but not THAT much better.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with Vancouver but outside of the small downtown core, there isn't much zoning for density. Government policy has created a supply shortage.
The West Coast (Vancouver, Victoria, etc.) rarely falls below zero degrees Celsius. Southern Ontario gets cold but it doesn't generally get Alberta-level cold. To be honest, I would rather live in Toronto than Houston.
