The market maker at Bitfinex appears to be the one forcing the price lower.
A bit extreme to characterize Bitfinex as "the market maker"
Otherwise the remainder of what you say in your linked-above post seems reasonable.
How would you characterize it Jay? You do realize a market maker is an actual position right?
It is like you are saying that Bitfinex leads the BTC price, and I think that is just a poor choice of descriptive words regarding the implications of such. There are over 200 exchanges (well including various places that you can buy and sell BTC), and surely I agree with any implication that some of the exchanges lead the price more than others, and it has been long considered that any exchanges that deal with margin (which would include Bitfinex) is less reliable as a "leader" than others such as Bitstamp that does not (even though concededly Bitstamp deals with a hell of a lot lower level of trade volume). Up and coming players like Binace certainly changes the price leading dynamics, too, presuming that there is some truth in Binance's trade volume. I am not sure exactly how I would characterize what you are saying, so I am just saying that asserting that Bitfinex is "the market maker" is not good word choice.
Its not advertised per say but each exchange has a individual or entity that fills this position and "makes" market prices and insures liquidity. Please note I did not say "the market maker".. e.i. meaning one over all, I said the maker "at" Bitfinex. To the best of my knowledge there are about a couple of dozen or so "makers" that drive market direction in bitcoin. Also worth mentioning is that there can possibly be more than one at any given exchange.
O.k. thanks for that clarification. It seems that I may have misunderstood what you were saying.
Bitfinex tends to "lag" behind other exchanges, resisting upwards AND downwards price movements until resistance or support is broken. Then explodes quite spectacularly one direction or the other.
Surely, I understand that it is good to recognize these kinds of patterns, and attempt to attribute meaning to them. You seem to acknowledge that sometimes the leader may not be the one that is in the front, too. So perhaps, we are on a similar page regarding these matters.. and surely, each of us is not in the same place at the same time, so what we experience can lead us to differing conclusions, too.
I have no first hand knowledge of this other than personal observation..so you can take it as anecdotal evidence.
Fair enough. I got kicked off of Bitfinex with the rest of the US individuals nearly a year ago, so harder for me to personally monitor it, when I don't have money there.. even though I do sometimes look at it, too (in order to make comparisons).
I will also add that recently Bittrex send me a email regarding fiat deposit/withdrawal options for a pilot program they are starting. In the application I could have requested "maker" status if I had so chosen. It does not mean I would have been accepted..that has to do with your trade activity, deposits and withdrawals and several other factors.
Yes, I understand that exchanges are developing multi-faceted approaches to customers, including some of them also implementing various kinds of OTC practices that could allow them to take a cut from large personal exchanges between BIG players, but whatever their contract exchange agreement would not affect exchange price.