Have you ever had the feeling that you work all day trading, see attractive margins on the screen, but at the end of the week your bank account does not reflect that growth? You are not alone. It is the most common headache among P2P traders in Latin America.
Many colleagues fall into a dangerous trap: confusing the Spread (the difference between buying and selling price) with Net Profit. And believe me, they are not the same.
Today we are going to set aside assumptions and talk about real numbers. We will see how to calculate what you really have left in your pocket so that you can transform your activity into a professional and profitable business.
The Myth of the Spread: Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Imagine you see an opportunity on Binance P2P: you buy USDT at 3.75 and sell at 3.85. At first glance, you have a margin of 0.10 for each dollar. Great! But be careful, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Beneath the surface, in that area we sometimes ignore due to "calculation laziness" or for using disorganized notebooks, submerged costs are hidden. If you don't see them, they can sink your profitability without you realizing it.
To have real visibility of your profitability, you must understand that your profit does not arise when you close the order on the platform, but when you count the final available money after subtracting all the "invisible" expenses.
The "Silent Enemies" of Your Profit
What are those costs that eat into your margin? Here are the most common ones we tend to forget when doing mental or quick calculations on a napkin:
Bank Fees: Many banks in Peru, Colombia, or Ecuador charge for exceeding a certain number of transactions or for immediate interbank transfers. Those cents add up.
Taxes on Financial Transactions: In some countries, there are automatic levies (like the 4x1000 in Colombia or the ITF in Peru) that apply to each movement. If your margin is 1% and the tax is 0.4%, you just lost almost half of your profit without noticing!
Costs of "Funding" and Withdrawal: Does it cost you money to move your fiat capital from one account to another to have liquidity? That is an operational cost.
Volatility during the wait: If it takes you too long to rotate the capital, the price may change against you.
The Formula of Truth
To stop trading blindly, you need to apply a strict Net Profit formula to each operation. Forget mental calculation. The real formula is this:
Net Profit = (Selling Price - Purchase Price) - (Bank Fees + Taxes + Transfer Costs)
It seems obvious, right? But the problem is not the math; it's the discipline. The average trader notes the purchase and selling price in an Excel sheet (or worse, in a notebook) and rarely breaks down the additional costs operation by operation.
This generates calculation errors that directly affect your perception of profit. You might think you made 50 USDT in a day when, in reality, after fees, you only made 30 USDT. That "false wealth" is what prevents you from growing.
The Secret is Detailed Record Keeping
You cannot improve what you do not measure. The only way to professionalize your business is by keeping an accurate record.
Manually recording each operation is tedious and prone to human errors. Losing time adding tickets and subtracting fees in a spreadsheet takes away valuable hours that you could use to keep trading. Additionally, a typo in an Excel formula can give you a completely wrong view of your business.
The difference between an amateur exchanger and a professional trader is the ability to know EXACTLY how much money they are making in real-time.
Professionalize Your Management Today
If you are tired of struggling with Excel formulas and want to know your real profitability without wasting time on manual calculations, you need a tool designed for this.
At Remesas Latam, we have created an app specifically designed to solve this pain point. We help you manage your "off-chain" finances and automatically calculate your profits, so you only worry about trading.
Disclaimer: This content is purely educational and focuses on the administrative management of the P2P business. It does not constitute financial or investment advice.
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