11–20 of 98 posts
Did not read the article, looks like someone is writing to boost the rise. As of this writing BTC is about $18.6k. It was hovering around $19.5k this past weekend.
Did not read the article, looks like someone is writing to boost the rise. As of this writing BTC is about $18.6k. It was hovering around $19.5k this past weekend.
You would have to be nuts to short when there's an exchange printing billions of dollars of unbacked tokens they can use to drive up the price at will. If you want to short cryptocurrency, short tethers.
You’ve been able to short bitcoin on okcoin, bitfinex, bitmex either via margin or through futures products for years. Secondly, newly launched futures products will have very thin liquidity due to the lack of market makers. There is no way a short/long position on CME will move the market in a meaningful way for a while. I wish Bloomberg et al will stop repeating this “you can’t short” meme because it you can and yo…
Wall Street is correct in saying that you cannot short bitcoin because the massive regulatory infrastructure that backs such transactions doesn't really exist.
One of my favorite websites is running an add: "Buy bitcoins by credit card, before it's too late!" That too late thing is coming sooner than later.
Did not read the article, looks like someone is writing to boost the rise. As of this writing BTC is about $18.6k. It was hovering around $19.5k this past weekend.
This seems to be the case with most of the articles about Bitcoin. I suspect there are a number of large holders and exchanges paying PR firms to get stories like this published/upvoted/etc and keep the train going.
Call me skeptical about the alleged claims about Bloomberg's motives.
Also the article doesn't contain mind-blowing information, it's just pointing out that shorting isn't happening yet.
You’ve been able to short bitcoin on okcoin, bitfinex, bitmex either via margin or through futures products for years. Secondly, newly launched futures products will have very thin liquidity due to the lack of market makers. There is no way a short/long position on CME will move the market in a meaningful way for a while. I wish Bloomberg et al will stop repeating this “you can’t short” meme because it you can and yo…
Shorting requires two parties. Someone has to loose the bet. If either that person doesn't hang around or the escrow fund disappears mtgox-style, your savvy short position also goes up in smoke. Or maybe, during the crash, the exchange decides to settle up with you by giving you bitcoins. That transfer should only take a few days/weeks during the panic of a real crash. Enjoy the ride. Wall Street is correct in saying…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterparty risk makes those venues practically useless for shorting. If Bitcoin goes up, you lose on the short. If Bitcoin crashes, the exchanges likely get compromised and you lose on counterparty risk. The only time you "win" is if Bitcoin goes down a little. Those aren't savvy trading parameters.
If you are short and bitcoin goes up, then you should lose money. That is expected. If bitcoin price crashes, how does it imply exchanges will become compromised??? Counterparty risk also exists for established exchanges. Secondly I’d venture to say for retail traders, their offerings are vastly inferior to bitfinex/bitmex/okcoin. You get much higher leverage and lower margin requirements. You also don’t pay for quot…
The same way every market before central counterparties (CCPs) failed: exchange participants default and leave the exchange holding the bag [1]. If an exchange permits shorting, then it permits margin accounts. When prices drop, margin borrowers have a habit of defaulting.
This is in addition to the risk of lightly-regulated exchanges having fewer Bitcoins than they claim to have [2][3].
> Counterparty risk also exists for established exchanges
It's better managed. Goldman Sachs requires 100% margin on its Bitcoin trades [4]. This is only the first layer of protection. If you bust on a CME trade, your broker makes up the difference; if they bust, other CME members make up the difference; et cetera [5]. Central counterparties were created to solve this problem.
[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/feds/2016/files/2...
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/mystery-s...
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/11/gox-bitco...
[4] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-14/goldman-s...
[5] https://www.cmegroup.com/education/files/balancing-ccp-and-m...
Did not read the article, looks like someone is writing to boost the rise. As of this writing BTC is about $18.6k. It was hovering around $19.5k this past weekend.
I don't see why Bloomberg journalists (or the corporation responsible for selling terminals, software, datafeeds and such) would care one way or another about the rise. Or drop.