# 1.1 What is arbitrage?

**Arbitrage** is the practice of exploiting price differences for the same (or equivalent) asset across different markets.

Simple example:

* SOL is trading at **100.00 USDC** on DEX A
* SOL is trading at **101.00 USDC** on DEX B

In theory:

1. You **buy** 1 SOL on A at 100.00
2. You **sell** 1 SOL on B at 101.00
3. Gross spread = 1.00 USDC (≈ +1%)

Real-world arbitrage is just this, scaled and repeated:

* Multiple venues
* Multiple hops (e.g. SOL → USDC → RAY → SOL)
* Different fee structures and liquidity profiles
* Latency and competition

**Capture OS** doesn’t hold your funds or press the buttons for you (unless you’re using an execution layer like Capture Bot). The core engine’s job is:

> Look at prices across venues → calculate the *net* spread after obvious costs → rank opportunities.

Everything else (whether you trade, how big you go, how you protect yourself) is execution logic.
