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Topic: Bitoption.org -- ESCROWED LIVE Bitcoin Options Trading - page 15. (Read 36582 times)

newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
Thanks, that means a lot!

Today, I hope. Squashing a few final bugs.
legendary
Activity: 1246
Merit: 1016
Strength in numbers
This looks pretty slick.

I'm constantly excited these days.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
We are a BITCOIN denominated market. That means you pay BTC to do things, you send us BTC, and you get BTC back from us when you withdraw.
Version 1 Info:

We use Mt. Gox for USD conversions, and for instance writing puts; you'll need USD to cover your put, of course! The way we do that is you deposit BTC here, and then convert it when you choose in the amount you choose using our API. We convert it on Mt. Gox for you directly from here, and it shows up in your accounts here as "USD".

There is NO WAY to receive USD from BitOptionMarket currently. Thus, you must convert back to BTC either through a call, or through the Mt. Gox exchange mechanism.

We charge a 1% fee to each party for all clearing transactions. Mt. Gox will charge their then-current rate on USD-BTC transactions, these fees will be netted out of your account.

We do not currently allow margining your account; you must have the BTC / USD to write options.

We (the market) or our owners may occasionally take trading positions, but we will always and only utilize the public API to do so

Options rules:

One contract = 1 BTC. This is contrary to most option markets. Typical reasons for the 100 share size in most markets is getting offer pricing into the penny range. This is not a need for BTC, and so we relax this restriction. We may change this if liquidity is adversely affected.

Options close on Thursday, 00:00:00 GMT only. A request for another date when you 'write' an option will be rounded to the nearest Thursday PRECEEDING your request.

Offer prices are rounded to 4 digits of precision, hence you may bid/ask as low as .0001 BTC

Strike prices are rounded to .05

Hence a request to write a call on Friday May 20 at a strike price of 7.11 with an offer 1.00025 will be entered as
Thursday May 19 7.10 1.0003
in the system.

When a crossing occurs in the order book, the bid or ask price that is EARLIEST is the crossing price.

API Instructions

All requests must be 'gets'
Register at /register
Login at /login, and get the "token". Tokens are good for 24 hours, and you can always get a new one if you lose yours.
/initiateDeposit to send us BTC
/write to write/ask a contract
/bid to bid on one
/allMyContracts to see which ones you own
/exerciseContract to exercise your contract

a list of all api calls is below.


Value Added Providers

We provide a mechanism for you to get commission from us for building applications that rely on the exchange. When you register as a provider ( at /registerProvider) you choose an additional commission to charge all transactions for which you provide your provider token.

Some notes:

We will take 20% of your additional commission, and return 80% to your provider account.
You may only provide your provider token at the placing of an ask (write) or a bid.
We will debit your customer's account the total commission, and credit yours.
We will then debit your account for our 20% stake and credit yours.

A brief Provider tutorial:
customertoken=/login(username:"customer",password:"custpass")
providertoken=/login(username:"me",password:"mypass")
/registerProvider(token:"token",max_commission:.02)
/write(standard_args,provider_token:providertoken,provider_comm:.0015)
/bid(standard_args,provider_token:providertoken,provider_comm:.0012)

Full API
estimateBtcSaleProceeds (btc)
estimateBtcPurchaseProceeds (usd)
register :login_id,password,email(optional):
login :name,password:
convertUsdIfGreaterThan :token,usd,min_dol:
convertBtcIfGreaterThan :token,btc,min_dol:
convertBtcToUsd :token,amount:
convertUsdToBtc :token,amount:
initiateDeposit :token:
securitiesList ::
listContracts ::
listPuts :date:
listCalls :date:
getAvailableUSD :token:
getAvailableBTC :token:
write:(token,type,date,strike,ask,num,underlying="BTC")
cancelOpenOption :token,contractId:
bid:(token,type,strikedate,strike,bid,num,underlying="BTC")
bidCtypeid :token,ctypeid,num,price:
exerciseContract : token,contractId,num="all ::
accountBalance :token:
openContracts :token:
listMyContracts :token:

Future Plans
v2 will allow selling of contracts, rather than just exercising.

Comments Desired!!
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
Official Market Status Thread Here: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12495.0

I'm pleased to announce that Bitoption is generally ready for early adopters. Trades are happening, and so far, nothing has melted! All trades at Bitoption are escrowed, so you need not worry about the reliability or credit of a transaction partner.

For options-savvy traders: read my quick notes at the bottom.

MAJOR UPDATE, WE NOW PRICE IN USD, 1 CONTRACT = 1 BTC. CHECK IT OUT!

To start trading options on Bitcoin / USD, just go to https://bitoption.org and register. Refer often to /faq and /help. I try to monitor this thread and provide support here as well as via email linked on the site in the help section.

What are options? Options are a way to bet on moves between BTC and USD without owning a huge number of BTC (or USD). There are currently options priced in the bitcents that could make you quite a lot of money depending on the swings of the market. Alternately, they're a way to LOCK IN profits you've made trading BTC so far.

Options at bitoption.org are priced in USD. They are trades on BTC. There are two sorts of option contracts available, 'calls' and 'puts.' Options have two prices associated with them; the 'strike' price and the 'bid/ask'. Bid/ask is what you wish to pay or get paid to trade the contract. The strike price is the price that the two currencies will exchange at.

  • Calls give you the right to purchase BTC for a USD at some point in the future. For instance, if you have 100 call contracts at 50 USD strike, you would be allowed to spend 5000 USD to buy 100 BTC any time before the option expiration.
  • Puts give you the right to sell BTC (put it on someone) in exchange for USD at some point in the future. For instance, if you have 100 put contracts at 20 USD strike, you would be allowed to give someone 100 BTC, and receive 2000 USD from them any time before the contract end.


Options trading is complicated; it's hard to get your head around, and you can lose your money quickly if you're not careful. Be careful! We are currently working on better documentation, and many requested new features. So, be patient with us!

Funding Your Account We currently only accept BTC; to get USD (which you'll need to take certain positions), we allow you to exchange on Mt. Gox directly from your bitoption account. This is the only way to get USD in your bitoption account currently. We are testing Mt. Gox "send USD" support and will likely support this soon.

Withdrawing We currently only send BTC out, although it looks likely we will be able to use Mt. Gox' sending facilities to allow you to withdraw funds in USD directly.

Options-savvy notes Trades are escrowed, funds are held in Mt. Gox. Contracts are American style, 1 contract = 1 BTC 1% commission on clearing, 1% for execution. Currently no auto-execution of trades (probably coming). Prices are quoted in USD-BTC We're looking for market makers, email me. No margin accounts, and that's the short version!
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