Bitcoin Forum

Is it even possible to short the BTC market ? Ive been longing it for a while but Im not aware of any shorting options. I know Coinbase doesnt have any and BTC isnt traded on Forex. Im US based.

There is several forex sites that offer short/long on fiatcurrencys/btc nowadays and last time i looked a site like bitfinex for example had the possibillity to lend usd that one could buy btc with internally on there site and then you have the obvius option if you currently have assets in the form of bitcoins you can always move those temporary to the other side of the fence, sell them for usd/eur or simular on some exchange and rebuy more btc if the btcprice goes down.

bitfinex.com (https://www.bitfinex.com/?refcode=Z3sAZKqZko)  <- Use my referral link and get 10% off trade fees the first month.

Very possible to short Bitcoin.

Just move your Bitcoins to Okcoin (http://t.co/8wKV70v0cP). It is the cheapest option as other exchanges have large markups that you have to wait $1 price moves in order to profit. While in Okcoin (http://t.co/8wKV70v0cP), you could already profit in 50 cents move.

If you're a gambler, Okcoin (http://t.co/8wKV70v0cP) has 20x margin trading. Bitfinex only 3x.

Okcoin is insolvent. Don't send a single satoshi to them. They've resorted to scamming and I would avoid dealing with anyone who mentions them.

Okay thanks, Ill experiment with Bitfinex

Can anyone give me a Bitfinex reference code ?

You're shorting yourself if you're trading on OkCoin these days-

I respect your options to short but doing it at this point is flat out financial suicide. That said, OkCoin or bitfinex allows you to go 20x-3x or more so. If you have to "short'', just hold off on buying til a certain point and then buy at your chosen point. Going leveraged is playing w/ fire and this is your warning. Many did this over the last year plus but things are coming down to a different market, so it's your choice atm. One bad play on this and you're wiped out to never recover and want nothing good for yourself.

Watching the BTC price fluctuate the past 6 - 8 months I do make money longing it against the USD, but I dont make money during the almost preditable monthly - bimonthly price drop. With the possibility to short I can make a little money during the downswings as well as the upswings.

Bitfinex is hard to make a profit on day trading because you need quite a move until your trade is successful. Thats because of their high fees.

I cant sugges 796.com too (50x leverage) because they have no support.

You are a beginner. DONT play with much money. You need to start very slow. So i suggest trusting okcoin for the moment because they are best for learning. Their fees are in your favor.

Of course you might lose your coins. But i think the chance you losing your coins because of trading is way higher then okcoin dying. Thats why you should invest only very few usd until you learned trading correctly.

I'll trade very small on OKcoin and a little bit on Bitfinex, but ultimately if I'm successful I'll use Bitfinex.

Buy and hold for your life and never sell at this point. Years later will make you happy.

I wrote i CANT suggest them. ;)

I switched from bitfinex to 796.com because the high fee on bitfinex works way too hefty against you. Its lowering your chances of success way too much.

796 has 50x leverage and its interesting to use such feature... though when i had questions they would not react. So i cant suggest them.

Okcoin has great support so far. The only downside i found is that a trigger order and a limit order cant stay at the same time. The limit overrides the trigger, which means your trigger is staying there but it wont get triggered. And they dont tell you. Thats really not cool. They could handle it simply the way that when the first order gets triggered that the other gets deleted, because there are not enough papers anymore.

In case you search higher leverage. I have read one can trade up to 40x on okcoin. But you need to become a vip for that.

Though okcoin has some serious trust problems at the momemt. Fine for for learning how to trade would it be still.

Any benefit to providing Liquidity in Okcoin over Bitfinex ?

Can someone please explain the shorting operation in short ?

You sell bitcoins you don't own with the hope of buying them back later at a cheaper price.

And what if the price does not go down and I cant buy back ? Who'll be accounted for the coins I sold ?

Services that I have used and recommend (with minor caveats w/ each):

Bitfinex
796xChange
Coinut


Bitfinex provides the least amount of leverage, I believe, but perhaps the longest running and 'most trusted' of the three.

I've found 796xChange to be helpful and consistent. For assistance you have to either send an e-mail and wait for ~12-24hr response, or call them during business hours in HK, which I have done. They've always been on the ball with me. The best thing to do is open an account and fund it with just a small amount of coin. Use that to give the site a trial run. There is a learning curve with any of these sites. If I want to take a levered long or short position this is a preferred platform for me, along with Bitfinex.

Coinut just launched, and their website/service is still first-run beta version. I've been using this site for a couple weeks and I really like what they are trying to build. You can get tremendous leverage with their options, but of course with that leverage come tremendous risk. Options allow you to profit from flat or sideways markets ... which explains why I like this feature at the moment ...

I'd recommend you give them all a try, learn the strengths and weaknesses, and use the one that fits your needs and interests best.

I've only used bitfinex, but have made numerous profitable short trades.  Check my signature for a discount on fees (which are on the higher side as has been brought up)

https://btc.sx

Leverage 1x, 5x and 10x, can open long and short positions on 3 different exchanges simultaneously. I'm using it for almost 2 years now, never had any issues except occassional slow withdrawals.

Does btc.sx count as shorting (leveraged trading)?  IDK, I think all exchanges kind of work, especially with a bot.

Yes, of course, he even wrote that in his post. Oo And no, only some exchanges offer leveraged trading. And i did not hear from a bot, someone can buy, that is using leveraged trading.

Leverage is there just to increase the size of your opened position. With leverage 1x you invest let's say 1 BTC and open long or short position worth 1 BTC, with leverage 2x you invest 1 BTC and borrow 1 BTC from btc.sx to open long or short position worth 2 BTC, etc. Higher the leverage, the more money you borrow from btc.sx and thus increase the risk. With leverage 10x price needs to move only 10% against you (bet on price going up but instead it goes down) and you'll end up wipped out but if you guessed price movement correctly then you'll double your investement when price goes up only 10%.