Topic: Get $1 Risk-free Starting Bonus for Bitcoinica Here - page 4. (Read 20268 times)

You don't sell Bitcoins on Bitcoinica - for that you need to go to an exchange.

Bitcoinica lets you leverage 1:5 in BTCUSD.

I'll give a little example (though I'm a bit new myself), anyone can feel free to correct me:

You deposit 1 BTC when the market is at 5 USD/BTC. This gives you a margin of 5, with a tradable balance of 25. From here you can decide to long or short.  If you long it, you 'buy' BTC at X price in hopes it goes up.  If you long 3 BTC when it is at 5 USD, and it goes up to 6 USD, you've made 3 USD.  If you short it, you sell 3 BTC at 5 USD, and it goes down to 4 USD, you've made 3 USD.

But it isn't so easy.  On the right of your screen, you'll see that P/L, Net Balance, and Maintainence.

P/L is your current profit/loss.  Green is profit, red is loss. It'll start out as a loss every time (due to the spread).

Your Net Balance is your Margin + P/L. If your P/L is green, your margin will be higher than when you started. If it is red, your margin will be lower.

Your Maintainence is... somehting.  Not really sure.  BUT what I have read is that if your maintainence ever exceeds your Net Balance, you get a 'margin call'.  That means the market has gone too far from where you ordered and even with the 1:5 leverage you don't have enough to maintain your account - so it liquidates it. To prevent liquidations, be sure to set stop-loss orders.

Hope this helps!

edit: to clarify some things: you need to lock in your profits just like you stop-loss orders.  These are called 'limit' orders. Also you can choose to simply 'liquidate' your current position, which will lock in whatever the current market is (weather it be a profit or a loss)

Once your positions are cleared, you can choose to withdrawl MtGOX USD CODE or BTC.