Topic: Should the exchanges close on the weekends? (Read 6510 times)

I've never seen google doing a planned maintance.
It must be a joke of a website.

I love that song.

Oh, we all fell victim to a vicious necromancer.

Meh, IT downtime is typically because a company considers the cost/benefit ratio of instant (or near-instant) switchovers are not worth it. There's nothing inherent that requires that things be down for more than a marginal amount of time. Especially for something like an exchange which is, at heart, a somewhat simplistic beast.

Did anyone notice this thread is from 2011? This silly discussion was left alone for 2 years and just continues now? Wow.

No.

Let me add some more emphasis so I am clear:

Example: Pirateat40 posted his announcement that he was going to shut down his ponzi on a Saturday afternoon (GMT+1) which caused a huge reaction in the market.

 - http://www.investopedia.com/exam-guide/cfa-level-1/securities-markets/emh-efficient-market-hypothesis.asp
 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis

There aren't many (or any ?) methods for a retail investor to do forex trading over the weekend.   There was one, OANDA, but they claimed the low volume was too challenging for them where they would be taking on too much risk having to take the other side of the trades:
 - http://www.forexcrunch.com/oanda-closes-weekend-trading

Of course, there is a lot of forex trading over the weekend -- just not by you or I.  Central banks, corporate and institutional (government) bankers, multinational corporations and more are all trading 24x7.

So the market is efficient for them.  The rest of us stuck with a losing forex position thanks to news that occurs over the weekend are stuck with that increasingly deteriorating position until the markets open on Monday (or Tuesday, when Monday is a banking holiday like what happened this 3-day weekend.)  

That's not the definition of an efficient market.  Market-changing information occurs over the weekend as well (with announcements oftentimes timed specifically for release over the weekend.)  Bitcoin markets don't have this restriction.    That still doesn't mean bitcoin exchanges can be considered "efficient" though.  For instance, there was a pattern called the "weekend dip" in which buyers interested in buying had insufficient cash at the ready at the exchanges in order to buy and as a result there was little buying to counter a weekend selloff until new cash arrived at the exchanges when funds sent through the banking system were credited.   Lately, however, the weekend dip opportunity seems to have abated.

At some point a financial company will start using Bitcoin as the method for moving value in and out of other assets, including offering the ability for that to continue throughout the weekend as the way to differentiate that investment offering from the competition.

If it's a good idea for exchanges to be closed on the weekends, somebody should start an exchange and run it like that.  If it's a good idea, that exchange will prosper relative to the other exchanges.

There might even be room in the market for both.

Bitcoin is the future! There is no reason for us to follow old world currency traditions!

Keep the exchanges open!

Or how about after hours (US time) so the people on the other side of the world can not use it during the day?

I can't believe this is actually being discussed.

Rule of thumb: if it starts with should and includes Bitcoin it's probably stupid.

No. Bitcoin has to be exchangeable 24/7 if it is to supersede cash. E.g. anyone can agree 24/7 to privately swap Mexican pesos for US$ in cash.

The scheduled downtime for upgrades is the only argument that holds water, and this is up to the individual exchanges. As pointed out, most major websites are 24/7 already.

Exchanges like any other website should decide when they want to go down for maintenance and if a exchanges wishes they can do it every week, but forcing all exchanges for a common window is the most ridiculous thing I heard in bit-coin economy a) how you will enforce it b) it doesn't make business sense because than I will open an exchange called window-exchange which will give me business for free in already crowded market, so please do it

15 min down per day sounds reasonable...with all maintenance extending this downtime as necessary. 1 day off per month. 1 weekend off every 6 months for big upgrades.

+1

Should the internet close on the weekends?

Exchanges should never close in my opinion.  This is one of the reasons bitcoin is better than banks.

very true. and if customers didnt want a 24/7 service they would not be trading.  and exchanges would have already implimented daily closing or weekend closing during dull periods of business.

yet the community as a whole show that 24/7 is useful. and that a call of arms to boycott a service intentionally goes against freedom of choice.

im not saying people shouldnt stop using a service if they dont have the funds. but demanding a mass boycott purely on individuals circumstances, affects other individuals and other businesses. causing ripples.

much better to ask the exchanges for statistics of when they have typical dull periods of trade and ask them if they are considering a standardised shutdown period for those regular times. and if so to advertise a poll for people to vote on such an idea instead of boycotting a service without knowing all the details and effects it may cause.

Exchanges *should* do what they *want* to do. But if their goal is to maximize profits then they should do what their customers want them to do and market conditions permit them to do.