It's already updated.
New features:
- Refresh-less experience
- PJAX
- Better User Interface
- Account Ledger
- Order History
- Better Deposits and Withdrawals (No more emails to request for manual withdrawals)
- Currency Exchange with guaranteed rates and liquidity
- Advanced Charting, including over 20 technical indicators
- Hosted by Rackspace
- Partially Redis-backed - super-fast!
- More robust trading engine
- Customizable leverage, from 1:1 to 10:1
- … Experience yourself...
Topic: [Announcement] Bitcoinica changes default leverage to 2.5:1 for everyone (Read 3812 times)
November 30, 2011, 01:32:47 PM
November 28, 2011, 08:33:17 PM
November 28, 2011, 01:35:12 AM
The weekend's over. Any updates?
November 24, 2011, 09:56:18 AM
When will 10:1 leverage be implemented? What exactly is the "verification" procedure?
We will launch the new version this weekend. Plus a big news.
You will know soon.
Good to hear that. Keep up the good work.
November 24, 2011, 04:49:19 AM
When will 10:1 leverage be implemented? What exactly is the "verification" procedure?
We will launch the new version this weekend. Plus a big news.
You will know soon.
November 24, 2011, 03:38:00 AM
When will 10:1 leverage be implemented? What exactly is the "verification" procedure?
November 20, 2011, 08:11:36 PM
Can I invest in bitcoinica? 
I'm interested in either 100% ownership or 0% ownership, not anything in between.
November 20, 2011, 07:07:51 PM
Can I invest in bitcoinica?
November 20, 2011, 10:01:16 AM
So, if I were to sell suddenly sell 1,000,000 coins on your site, this would not effect the mtgox price at all?
I could get your price down to 0 more or less and mtgox would not notice?
Just trying to understand how this works, this is not at all an attack.
I could get your price down to 0 more or less and mtgox would not notice?
Just trying to understand how this works, this is not at all an attack.
If you do so, we will just hedge your positions at Mt. Gox.
The market price will definitely go down. That's why Bitcoinica is not an exchange.
Thank you for your response. I wish I had skills and the program you have to correctly regulate this.
can i ask why bitcoinica is not listed on bitcoincharts.com if it is so widely used? Is it some evil conspiracy by gox?
The first part is a good question. The second part, not so much...
I was referring to the fact that bitcoincharts is apparently controlled by mtgox and I thought they were trying to inhibit competition by not listing them there.
Only after looking into it did i realise that bitcoinica is not actually an exchange but instead do their trading via mtgox. my original post wasnt implying that bitcoinica is something mtgox made.
I am curious though, how does bitcoinica make money? do you charge a tiny extra fee on top of the mtgox fee?
bitcoincharts is controlled by mtgox? why do you think this? btw this is odds are one of the more profitable companies in the BTC network. I wish I were running this.
Bitcoinica makes money by charging spreads for all transactions. The spreads are generally high, usually ranging from 0.9% to 1.6%.
Yes, we are very profitable. Our volume is about 1/4 - 1/3 of Mt. Gox's, and the business structure is extremely lean. I always believe in the philosophy of day one profitability.
November 20, 2011, 09:27:58 AM
can i ask why bitcoinica is not listed on bitcoincharts.com if it is so widely used? Is it some evil conspiracy by gox?
The first part is a good question. The second part, not so much...
I was referring to the fact that bitcoincharts is apparently controlled by mtgox and I thought they were trying to inhibit competition by not listing them there.
Only after looking into it did i realise that bitcoinica is not actually an exchange but instead do their trading via mtgox. my original post wasnt implying that bitcoinica is something mtgox made.
I am curious though, how does bitcoinica make money? do you charge a tiny extra fee on top of the mtgox fee?
November 20, 2011, 09:13:53 AM
So, if I were to sell suddenly sell 1,000,000 coins on your site, this would not effect the mtgox price at all?
I could get your price down to 0 more or less and mtgox would not notice?
Just trying to understand how this works, this is not at all an attack.
I could get your price down to 0 more or less and mtgox would not notice?
Just trying to understand how this works, this is not at all an attack.
If you do so, we will just hedge your positions at Mt. Gox.
The market price will definitely go down. That's why Bitcoinica is not an exchange.
November 20, 2011, 08:18:39 AM
can i ask why bitcoinica is not listed on bitcoincharts.com if it is so widely used? Is it some evil conspiracy by gox?
1. Bitcoin Charts didn't accept Bitcoinica because we're not an exchange.
2. We're not associated with Mt. Gox in any way.
November 20, 2011, 08:00:43 AM
can i ask why bitcoinica is not listed on bitcoincharts.com if it is so widely used? Is it some evil conspiracy by gox?
November 19, 2011, 10:36:44 AM
Thank you, I will keep adding coins!
Well, it's better to say:
Thank you, I will keep earning coins!
November 19, 2011, 10:04:05 AM
I was under the impression I would have 5 to 1 leverage. I keep my account well funded and was no pleased to see it at 2.5 Will you correct this issue? Thank you.
Changed your account's leverage to 5:1.
We fulfill anyone's request to increase leverage. It's just one email away.
November 17, 2011, 01:16:28 PM
It might be handy if you put an indicator on each position of at what price a margin call would occur at and what price liquidation would occur at. It makes it easier for people not crunching the numbers to analyze risk.
November 17, 2011, 11:35:04 AM
I'd love to read a short "for dummies" explanation of how exactly leverage works in Bitcoinica.
To satisfy your need immediately, here you go:
So, you want to buy Bitcoins, and you're pretty sure that it will go up. You can buy some Bitcoins, and mortgage these Bitcoins to borrow some dollars, and buy more Bitcoins, ...
When you make profits, you will basically sell them all at higher prices and you just have to return the dollars to us. All the profits belong to you!
If you want to sell Bitcoins just because you feel it will drop and you don't even have Bitcoins, you can take advantage of this movement too. You can simply mortgage your dollars, borrow some Bitcoins, sell them and turn them into dollars, and mortgage these dollars and borrow more Bitcoins to sell,...
When you make profits, you will basically buy back the Bitcoins that you've sold at lower prices, and return the Bitcoins to us. The dollars leftover will be yours!
Bitcoinica makes the whole process seamless. You can open an account, deposit either currency and start trading with 1, 2.5 or 5 times the account balance that you have. When you trade, we first try to match your orders with someone else at Bitcoinica who trades in the opposite direction, if we can't find one, we will buy or sell accordingly at Mt. Gox to maintain a balanced portfolio.
We make profits by setting different prices for buying and selling, and the difference minus Mt. Gox fees will be our profits from this process. We don't charge or give interests.
At the same time, your account balance may be borrowed by someone else for trading. So basically Bitcoinica is a pool of USD and BTC, and everyone can take advantage of the secured loans of either currency to trade.
Thanks for the info! I think a concrete example demonstrating the use case will help a lot.
Supposed I have 10 BTC and 20 USD currently a Bitcoinica, with Mt. Gox having 1 BTC = 3 USD.
I think BTC will be worth 5 USD tomorrow.
What now?
How does the amount of leverage come into play? What happens if I had only 10 BTC, 0 USD, and I used my BTC to buy USD with leverage, but then BTC fell to 1 USD?
Also, does it make sense to hedge both with and against BTC at times? (Suppose I just want to accept BTC in my business ... I don't want to speculate, I just want to be able to assume 1 BTC = 3 USD for the next month ... can I "insure" / hedge against any change of BTC/USD rate, both up and down?)
When you have 10 BTC and 20 USD, you will have 50 USD margin balance at the price of 3. With 2.5x margin, you have 125 USD to trade, so you can buy about 40 BTC. If BTC rises to $5 tomorrow, you get profits of 40 x (5-3) = $80. Then your account will have 100 USD and 10 BTC. The 10 BTC you deposited will remain unchanged, and it appreciates!
If you have BTC and want to short BTC, you must short more than what you have in order to be effective. When you make profits, your unrealized profits will come into the mortgage as well. So even if your BTC loses value, your unrealized profits of your short position can cover the depreciation. In the end, you still get the same BTC back, but you will earn USD profits.
It depends. If you want to stabilize your business, it's a nice thing to have. You can hedge even before the confirmations (and ship the good after confirmations). So you get guaranteed USD payments with minimal risk. The best thing about leverage is that you don't have to deposit you whole business into Bitcoinica. Only a part of money which is enough to cover the fluctuation will be good for hedging. Same thing applies for mining.
November 17, 2011, 11:16:21 AM
I'd love to read a short "for dummies" explanation of how exactly leverage works in Bitcoinica.
To satisfy your need immediately, here you go:
So, you want to buy Bitcoins, and you're pretty sure that it will go up. You can buy some Bitcoins, and mortgage these Bitcoins to borrow some dollars, and buy more Bitcoins, ...
When you make profits, you will basically sell them all at higher prices and you just have to return the dollars to us. All the profits belong to you!
If you want to sell Bitcoins just because you feel it will drop and you don't even have Bitcoins, you can take advantage of this movement too. You can simply mortgage your dollars, borrow some Bitcoins, sell them and turn them into dollars, and mortgage these dollars and borrow more Bitcoins to sell,...
When you make profits, you will basically buy back the Bitcoins that you've sold at lower prices, and return the Bitcoins to us. The dollars leftover will be yours!
Bitcoinica makes the whole process seamless. You can open an account, deposit either currency and start trading with 1, 2.5 or 5 times the account balance that you have. When you trade, we first try to match your orders with someone else at Bitcoinica who trades in the opposite direction, if we can't find one, we will buy or sell accordingly at Mt. Gox to maintain a balanced portfolio.
We make profits by setting different prices for buying and selling, and the difference minus Mt. Gox fees will be our profits from this process. We don't charge or give interests.
At the same time, your account balance may be borrowed by someone else for trading. So basically Bitcoinica is a pool of USD and BTC, and everyone can take advantage of the secured loans of either currency to trade.
Thanks for the info! I think a concrete example demonstrating the use case will help a lot.
Supposed I have 10 BTC and 20 USD currently a Bitcoinica, with Mt. Gox having 1 BTC = 3 USD.
I think BTC will be worth 5 USD tomorrow.
What now?
How does the amount of leverage come into play? What happens if I had only 10 BTC, 0 USD, and I used my BTC to buy USD with leverage, but then BTC fell to 1 USD?
Also, does it make sense to hedge both with and against BTC at times? (Suppose I just want to accept BTC in my business ... I don't want to speculate, I just want to be able to assume 1 BTC = 3 USD for the next month ... can I "insure" / hedge against any change of BTC/USD rate, both up and down?)
November 17, 2011, 09:46:32 AM
I'd love to read a short "for dummies" explanation of how exactly leverage works in Bitcoinica.
To satisfy your need immediately, here you go:
So, you want to buy Bitcoins, and you're pretty sure that it will go up. You can buy some Bitcoins, and mortgage these Bitcoins to borrow some dollars, and buy more Bitcoins, ...
When you make profits, you will basically sell them all at higher prices and you just have to return the dollars to us. All the profits belong to you!
If you want to sell Bitcoins just because you feel it will drop and you don't even have Bitcoins, you can take advantage of this movement too. You can simply mortgage your dollars, borrow some Bitcoins, sell them and turn them into dollars, and mortgage these dollars and borrow more Bitcoins to sell,...
When you make profits, you will basically buy back the Bitcoins that you've sold at lower prices, and return the Bitcoins to us. The dollars leftover will be yours!
Bitcoinica makes the whole process seamless. You can open an account, deposit either currency and start trading with 1, 2.5 or 5 times the account balance that you have. When you trade, we first try to match your orders with someone else at Bitcoinica who trades in the opposite direction, if we can't find one, we will buy or sell accordingly at Mt. Gox to maintain a balanced portfolio.
We make profits by setting different prices for buying and selling, and the difference minus Mt. Gox fees will be our profits from this process. We don't charge or give interests.
At the same time, your account balance may be borrowed by someone else for trading. So basically Bitcoinica is a pool of USD and BTC, and everyone can take advantage of the secured loans of either currency to trade.
November 17, 2011, 09:38:40 AM
I'd love to read a short "for dummies" explanation of how exactly leverage works in Bitcoinica.
We're considering making a series of videos to showcase Bitcoinica's various features to newbies, or "dummies".
Thank you for your feedback!
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