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Topic: If you were to start a position on bitcoinica RIGHT NOW... - page 2. (Read 3180 times)

legendary
Activity: 1500
Merit: 1022
I advocate the Zeitgeist Movement & Venus Project.
http://www.sec.gov/investor/alerts/trading101basics.pdf

The internets are good for learning about things.
hero member
Activity: 482
Merit: 500
Can someone please explain exactly how to sell short on Bitcoinica? I've googled and searched, and I swear there's no good explanation that easily shows up. So, if you'd be so kind, walk through a scenario at the current BTC price of around $2.50. Let's say I expect it to drop to $2.2 in the near future, and I've got 10 BTC to put into Bitcoinica. What do I do to set that up as a short sell? How does the 2.5:1 margin come into play? What's the maximum BTC I can short at $2.2 with my 10BTC, and at what price would my position be forced into liquidation? Thanks in advance!

PS -- Zhoutong, you seriously need some clear instructions on your site; I'd suggest the FAQ page, which at present doesn't contain a lot of useful information. Walk through examples of how to do a short sell, a put, a long, etc. It would be very useful to me, and I'm sure others as well.

Just sell 25 or however much your leverage allows or however much you feel comfortable with.  Your max leverage is probably 2.5 right now, so 25 would be the max you can do with 10.  It'll show your position as -25.0 (or however much you sold).  Number on left is what you sell for, number on right is what you buy at.
A margin call occurs when your net value drops below twice your maintenance.  I'm not sure how maintenance is figured up.  You'll know when you get a margin call (if you keep the page open) -- a big pinkish red warning box appears on the trade page.  I am not sure how much longer after a margin call a forced liquidation will occur.  Soon, I would guess, but it's only happened to me once so far and that was because I was not able to get to the interwebs for three days (nature sucks).
Again, a specific rundown of what the various numbers mean and which option to use on Bitcoinica would be supremely useful. So let's say I have 2.8BTC deposited (since I do -- figure I gotta try it out). At the current BTC price, that works out to a margin balance of $7.00 and a tradeable balance of $17.50. Great. Now what do I do to "sell 20 or however much my leverage allows"? Let's say I expect price to drop to $2.40 soon, which is only a $0.10 drop. Does that mean I can put a limit buy of 7.29 BTC ($17.50 / $2.40 = 7.28167), or does that mean I could put in a limit buy of 50 BTC and still have leverage available (e.g. $17 / $.10 = 170 BTC leverage)?

This is what I mean by the whole "Bitcoinica needs better instructions" statement. Yes, there are plenty of us new to trading because of BTC, and we might make mistakes, but at the very least let us know how to do it.

Here's another one for you: Bitcoinica has a tab labeled "Positions" and another labeled "Orders". If I go to "Positions" I get a message saying, "You don't have any active position yet. Why not place an order now?" That naturally links back to the same old Limit/Stop/Trailing Stop/Market order screen. The descriptions of the various orders don't immediately make sense. I tried a few out with not real success so far; I thought I put in a stop order to buy 1BTC at $2.80 for example, and now I have a position saying "1BTC @ $2.5274, -$0.05, -2.083%". My orders tab also has "BTCUSD Limit 1.0 $2.8000 Executed @ 2.5274". Maybe I hit the wrong button somewhere, but how does a stop buy at $2.80 show up as a position, and what does this mean? Does this mean I'm betting the price will now go up to $2.80? Because I then put in a stop sell at $2.40 for 1BTC, but that didn't show up as a position and so now I'm back to being confused.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
Can someone please explain exactly how to sell short on Bitcoinica? I've googled and searched, and I swear there's no good explanation that easily shows up. So, if you'd be so kind, walk through a scenario at the current BTC price of around $2.50. Let's say I expect it to drop to $2.2 in the near future, and I've got 10 BTC to put into Bitcoinica. What do I do to set that up as a short sell? How does the 2.5:1 margin come into play? What's the maximum BTC I can short at $2.2 with my 10BTC, and at what price would my position be forced into liquidation? Thanks in advance!

PS -- Zhoutong, you seriously need some clear instructions on your site; I'd suggest the FAQ page, which at present doesn't contain a lot of useful information. Walk through examples of how to do a short sell, a put, a long, etc. It would be very useful to me, and I'm sure others as well.

Just sell 25 or however much your leverage allows or however much you feel comfortable with.  Your max leverage is probably 2.5 right now, so 25 would be the max you can do with 10.  It'll show your position as -25.0 (or however much you sold).  Number on left is what you sell for, number on right is what you buy at.
A margin call occurs when your net value drops below twice your maintenance.  I'm not sure how maintenance is figured up.  You'll know when you get a margin call (if you keep the page open) -- a big pinkish red warning box appears on the trade page.  I am not sure how much longer after a margin call a forced liquidation will occur.  Soon, I would guess, but it's only happened to me once so far and that was because I was not able to get to the interwebs for three days (nature sucks).
hero member
Activity: 482
Merit: 500
Can someone please explain exactly how to sell short on Bitcoinica? I've googled and searched, and I swear there's no good explanation that easily shows up. So, if you'd be so kind, walk through a scenario at the current BTC price of around $2.50. Let's say I expect it to drop to $2.2 in the near future, and I've got 10 BTC to put into Bitcoinica. What do I do to set that up as a short sell? How does the 2.5:1 margin come into play? What's the maximum BTC I can short at $2.2 with my 10BTC, and at what price would my position be forced into liquidation? Thanks in advance!

PS -- Zhoutong, you seriously need some clear instructions on your site; I'd suggest the FAQ page, which at present doesn't contain a lot of useful information. Walk through examples of how to do a short sell, a put, a long, etc. It would be very useful to me, and I'm sure others as well.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 501
TokenUnion-Get Rewarded for Holding Crypto
I wasn't about to just throw money away on trial and error.

Put $1 in.  Pretend it's 100% of your money.  If gain 10 cents then that is 10 percent.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
Don't take "advice" from someone else on that matter, I have a short position myself so I can't be impartial. Rather learn technical analysis and draw your own conclusions.
I use RSI and Aroon Oscillators if that helps any.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
hours.

I'm putting all eleven of my dispensable dollars in faith of your statement, sir.  I hope you don't let me down.

But... long has more votes.  Ugh, i'm so torn.
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
hours.

I'm putting all eleven of my dispensable dollars in faith of your statement, sir.  I hope you don't let me down.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
short.

it could go up to 2.6 but going back to the low 2s for certain. (That is even if this is market reversal.)

What kind of time span are we talkin here?
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
short.

it could go up to 2.6 but going back to the low 2s for certain. (That is even if this is market reversal.)
legendary
Activity: 2408
Merit: 1009
Legen -wait for it- dary
D.
Mostly ignorance I guess. I went to the site, and I couldn't figure it out in a minute or two so I left. I wasn't about to just throw money away on trial and error. This was when they were fairly new(er). I haven't been back since.   Undecided
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Shame on everything; regret nothing.
Happy holidays everyone.
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