Topic: ICBIT Derivatives Market (USD/BTC futures trading) - LIVE - page 23. (Read 97654 times)
Maintenance break in trading services now. I will post here/tweet when things are done.
It still would be nice for there to be shown the history of daily clearing prices. (And also the ability to access the charts and order book without first authenticating, incidentally.)
Indeed I heard many similar requests, however I want to make some tradeoff by making the frontpage way more informative and "live" than the currently existing one, however imposing some limitations (slower update rate, for example) not to overload the server with many unauthenticated and thus uncontrolled connections.This is already in progress, so should be deployed relatively soon.
I would also appreciate unauthorized access to the order book. You see, I'm considering creating a website that actively tracks backwardation in bitcoin. So in order to track that I need to know the asks for the futures contracts, and the bid on BTC on Mt. Gox. Mt. Gox already has public order books, so your site is the only missing piece of the puzzle.
Who in his right mind would place an ASK at 39.281?
Anyone who wants to lock in the ability to sell a BTC at $39 today (but simply won't get the cash until September 15th). That's who.
If you think so, you could place a BID at 39. Then tomorrows trading range will be centered around 39. If you think 39 is too low, then you should be happy if the bid is taken.
That's true. Thanks for the hint.
If you think so, you could place a BID at 39. Then tomorrows trading range will be centered around 39. If you think 39 is too low, then you should be happy if the bid is taken.
how are we going to get for example BUM3 going? The trading range is 32.139 - 39.281.
Who in his right mind would place an ASK at 39.281?
Who in his right mind would place an ASK at 39.281?
and lower fees!!!!
And .... drum roll .... no less than three new BTC/USD futures contracts have appeared in the trading interface. Virtually no orders (yet) 
Edit: I cannot count to three
Edit: I cannot count to three
An important server side update was just deployed.
Most noticable improvement: Now multiple connections from the same user is possible, and notifications will be automatically routed to every connected client. So you can open S&P500-index futures in one browser tab, BTCUSD in another tab, and Exchange in the third tab, and all of that will work and autoupdate as expected.
You can run your trading bot software, and watch the orders it places in real time in the web browser.
Another noticeable improvement is for IE users. Sometimes, autoupdates did not work and user had to force page refresh to see updates to his orders list. Now, this is also fixed.
Most noticable improvement: Now multiple connections from the same user is possible, and notifications will be automatically routed to every connected client. So you can open S&P500-index futures in one browser tab, BTCUSD in another tab, and Exchange in the third tab, and all of that will work and autoupdate as expected.
You can run your trading bot software, and watch the orders it places in real time in the web browser.
Another noticeable improvement is for IE users. Sometimes, autoupdates did not work and user had to force page refresh to see updates to his orders list. Now, this is also fixed.
Great! I really like this steady stream of small interface improvements!
Where is june BTCUSD?
An important server side update was just deployed.
Most noticable improvement: Now multiple connections from the same user is possible, and notifications will be automatically routed to every connected client. So you can open S&P500-index futures in one browser tab, BTCUSD in another tab, and Exchange in the third tab, and all of that will work and autoupdate as expected.
You can run your trading bot software, and watch the orders it places in real time in the web browser.
Another noticeable improvement is for IE users. Sometimes, autoupdates did not work and user had to force page refresh to see updates to his orders list. Now, this is also fixed.
Most noticable improvement: Now multiple connections from the same user is possible, and notifications will be automatically routed to every connected client. So you can open S&P500-index futures in one browser tab, BTCUSD in another tab, and Exchange in the third tab, and all of that will work and autoupdate as expected.
You can run your trading bot software, and watch the orders it places in real time in the web browser.
Another noticeable improvement is for IE users. Sometimes, autoupdates did not work and user had to force page refresh to see updates to his orders list. Now, this is also fixed.
I must say that I tend to agree with toffoo here. AFAIK noone has tried to shut down icbit so far, but then noone has had an incentive to do so. Piggybacking on S&P500 may be like waving a red cloth at the face of some pretty resourceful people. If they truly earn money on licensing the right to trade such futures, they are almost sure to have people employed to look for people that are not paying. McGraw-Hill are know to be a bit aggressive when it comes to protecting their rights. While interesting, it this worth the risk? Well, that is of course Fireball's call, he is the one who could get in trouble.
Ok, I got information.ICBIT organizes trading of its own futures contract, which settles as 0.01 BTC multiplied by value of the S&P 500 index by the moment of settlement. We do not calculate S&P 500 index ourself, we do not pretend to be substituting CME's S&P 500 futures contracts, or e-mini S&P 500 futures contracts settled in either US Dollars or Euros.
If absolutely necessary, to avoid legal problems, we are ready to:
1. Change name of ICBIT's futures contract to avoid direct relation to either e-mini or CME's full sized S&P 500 futures contract settled in USD or EUR.
2. Change settlement formula by adding a fixed offset. For example, our contract's tick size would be 0.01 BTC x (S&P500 index value + 1 point).
So, it's nothing to worry about (yet).
While I applaud this move and look forward to trading this interesting new contract, I fear this may be a step closer toward the fate of the GLBSE.
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Again, I will personally support and trade this new contract, but in the back of my mind there will always be the lingering fear that it could all go "poof!" with one ugly phone call (just like all my holdings at the GLBSE). Trading an S&P 500 contract gets us significantly closer to going away in a poof of smoke.
-= skip =-
Again, I will personally support and trade this new contract, but in the back of my mind there will always be the lingering fear that it could all go "poof!" with one ugly phone call (just like all my holdings at the GLBSE). Trading an S&P 500 contract gets us significantly closer to going away in a poof of smoke.
Thanks for your support! I will provide my colleague's comments about this issue here later today, as he has more knowledge in the legal side, and I have more knowledge in technical side of the question.
However, two points about what you said:
1. Phone call is not really a legal action. So if GLBSE explained their shutdown with a "phone call", it sounds like a lie. At the very least, email complain would better describe situation, the person in charge of the claim, date, message headers and address would confirm the identity of the person, etc. Phone call is nothing.
2. In the worst case, if ICBIT gets a notification that the S&P500 bitcoin futures trading requires paying licensing fees, it does not mean ICBIT is going to shutdown. It just means that we would have to stop trading this specific futures until legal problems are resolved, or just stop trading S&P500 and move to another interesting index futures contract.
I must say that I tend to agree with toffoo here. AFAIK noone has tried to shut down icbit so far, but then noone has had an incentive to do so. Piggybacking on S&P500 may be like waving a red cloth at the face of some pretty resourceful people. If they truly earn money on licensing the right to trade such futures, they are almost sure to have people employed to look for people that are not paying. McGraw-Hill are know to be a bit aggressive when it comes to protecting their rights. While interesting, it this worth the risk? Well, that is of course Fireball's call, he is the one who could get in trouble.
While I applaud this move and look forward to trading this interesting new contract, I fear this may be a step closer toward the fate of the GLBSE.
The gold and oil futures we've been trading here for a while now aren't really owned or regulated by one person or entity, but the S&P Index is. World futures exchanges pay hefty licensing fees to trade contracts on indexes like the S&P 500. I presume the ICBIT isn't paying The McGraw-Hill Companies a licensing fee to trade this?
We all know that running a virtual currency-based futures exchange is in a legal grey area right now. There are two ways forward: one would be the "Mt.Gox model" of trying to be legit and follow everybody's rules, the other being the "Pirate Bay/WikiLeaks/MPEx model" where you use good cryptography, redundant backups, and setup shop in someplace like Romania and say "fuck it, try and stop us!".
I'm afraid the ICBIT seems to be drifting toward the latter.
Again, I will personally support and trade this new contract, but in the back of my mind there will always be the lingering fear that it could all go "poof!" with one ugly phone call (just like all my holdings at the GLBSE). Trading an S&P 500 contract gets us significantly closer to going away in a poof of smoke.
The gold and oil futures we've been trading here for a while now aren't really owned or regulated by one person or entity, but the S&P Index is. World futures exchanges pay hefty licensing fees to trade contracts on indexes like the S&P 500. I presume the ICBIT isn't paying The McGraw-Hill Companies a licensing fee to trade this?
We all know that running a virtual currency-based futures exchange is in a legal grey area right now. There are two ways forward: one would be the "Mt.Gox model" of trying to be legit and follow everybody's rules, the other being the "Pirate Bay/WikiLeaks/MPEx model" where you use good cryptography, redundant backups, and setup shop in someplace like Romania and say "fuck it, try and stop us!".
I'm afraid the ICBIT seems to be drifting toward the latter.
Again, I will personally support and trade this new contract, but in the back of my mind there will always be the lingering fear that it could all go "poof!" with one ugly phone call (just like all my holdings at the GLBSE). Trading an S&P 500 contract gets us significantly closer to going away in a poof of smoke.
We're glad to present you the new futures contract available for trading at ICBIT. It's one of the most popular contract type throughout the worldwide exchanges.
The S&P500 futures, optimized for bitcoins. Very easy to understand and trade.
Features:
a. Price corresponds to the S&P500 index value. Minimum price step is 0.25 points. No need to recalculate anything. Just trade.
b. Small contract size: 0.01 BTC x index value. That's substantially lower than e-mini's $50 x index value, and allows for more liquidity available on the market
c. Low fees oriented toward scalpers and high frequency traders: The smallest possible price difference of 0.25 points can still result in a profitable trade!
I hope you enjoy that. As usual, let me know if something is not allright, and I will do my best to solve these issues.
The S&P500 futures, optimized for bitcoins. Very easy to understand and trade.
Features:
a. Price corresponds to the S&P500 index value. Minimum price step is 0.25 points. No need to recalculate anything. Just trade.
b. Small contract size: 0.01 BTC x index value. That's substantially lower than e-mini's $50 x index value, and allows for more liquidity available on the market
c. Low fees oriented toward scalpers and high frequency traders: The smallest possible price difference of 0.25 points can still result in a profitable trade!
I hope you enjoy that. As usual, let me know if something is not allright, and I will do my best to solve these issues.
BUH3 is now over half million USD worth of trades -- which is the level BUZ2 was at when it reached settlement, except BUH3 hit it in about 70 days I believe.
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/117990284188664727142/posts/9FZNsGd2MBz
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/117990284188664727142/posts/9FZNsGd2MBz
21 days, actually! Which is important, since it means that the current contango is three times more expensive.
The BUH3 futures contract (BTC/USD), started some 10 days ago already has had over $100K USD worth of trades (which is 1/5 of total BUZ2 volume which was trading for months!).
BUH3 is now over half million USD worth of trades -- which is the level BUZ2 was at when it reached settlement, except BUH3 hit it in about 70 days I believe.
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/117990284188664727142/posts/9FZNsGd2MBz
The price charts for GDJ3 and CLJ3 are borked, ... no updates in many days.
I will check, thanks! Minor thing: front page's news block in the left sidebar was broken (it used to show latest @icbit_se twitter feed). Now I fixed it, and reworked to be asynchronous, so now page loads much faster, without the annoying lag which happened before.
The price charts for GDJ3 and CLJ3 are borked, ... no updates in many days.
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