Is there a profit in this activity? (in General)

If I keep a few high + item that is popular, eg NSC and such and insta down them as people want, then hire a forger to forge it back up?
I assume insta is more expensive then forge because of the time factor, but is there enough of a margin to warrent keeping those items? (ok, I can put them on rental, but still).

xfers might be cutting deep into any profits, but as long as you keep track and only do popular items you should be able to make cash

I think you would make more money from just renting them out all the time. The xfer costs would make it very hard to make a good profit off of that.

this type of trade carries hefty risk since the margin is thin due to transfer and time frame long. (A lot of the popular items that has a good insta down market is popular precisely because they are not forgible) There is always the risk of your item going out of fashion due to game changes. Actually, I can't think of a forgible item that is popular enough to make you a profit, maybe SoD. Don't think the return is high enough for the risk anyways.

You would think that would be profitable, but typically, forging is equal to or more expensive than insta-ing (I have no idea why, because I agree with your sentiments)

Very low profit margin if it works out. Fairly high risk of losing money. I wouldn't do it but it depends somewhat on your forgers rate.