Bitcoin Forum

I want to short btc when it skyrockets on a legalised exchange. I have no interest in doing that on a monkey btc-e exchange.
Can anyone help me out ?

You can do it on Nasdaq OMX (ticker COINXBT, ratio: 200:1 to BTC). It's traded in Swedish krona but available through many international brokerages (including US ones).

Yeah, and good luck since you will need a lot of it...

bitstamp or bitfinex are legit exchange, you can try your way on one of those big exchange with big volume, trading futures on okcoin should be profitable too

I trade on bitfinex. Not regulated but really stable.

They might be considered 'legit' but they're still not regulated and they could disappear in a puff of disaster at any moment. You're leaving yourself open to a recovery process that might result in getting diddly squat back.

Bitstamp doesn't do leverage. OKcoin have proven themselves to be incompetent liars. They still work though.

Kraken has a good rep and does leverage but it's no more legalised than anywhere else. Itbit is the most legit of them all but as far as I know the terms of their banking charter specifically prohibits leverage.

The OP may be in for a bit of a wait yet.

I don't see OP mentioned need for leverage anywhere. He wants to short on a regulated exchange, Nasdaq OMX is as regulated as it gets. Shorting is possible through any reputable brokerage.

Shorting IS using leverage. Selling != Shorting. Not the same thing at all

Incorrect. Shorting does not imply leverage, the concepts are orthogonal.
Shorting: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortselling.asp
Leverage: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/073113/leverage-what-it-and-how-it-works.asp

shorting requires margin account and uses margin. You will be charged money (margin interest) for shorts, so it does imply leverage as in NOT CASH, similar to margin lending (long). The "funny" thing about shorting is that you can easily lose MORE than you invested in comparison with a long (non-leveraged) position as you can only lose whatever you invested there and nothing more.

As per specification (http://xbtprovider.com/lang_en), multiplicator 0.005 means 200 ETN shares per one BTC. There is a fair value calculator down the page.

Similar, but not equivalent. You could argue that buying the instrument outright is a "leveraged trade" with leverage 1:1. Same goes for a non-leveraged naked short sale (with a leverage 1:1). Theoretically, you could lose infinite amount amount of money on a non-leveraged naked short, you are right. In practice, margin calls will probably kick in long before that.

just for the sake of it...
1. shorting is not allowed in cash accounts (like IRAs). Surely, it means that it is different from long in that respect. Long nonmargined positions do not result in any interest payments, but short positions always do. I fail to see how you can see those as basically identical.
2. Margin call warnings mean nothing when you get a gap up. Not only your position would be closed involuntarily (if it is below zero), but you would also experience a cash call on any liquid assets you might have (bank account, etc.)

so we have only one regulated exchange? that's a bit bad if you ask me, i was expecting something more than that

with leverage he can diminish the risk of holding many money on a non regulated exchange, and thus using those that are not regulated

also i'm assuming that he will withdraw any profit from there

You have Coinbase as well of course but Itbit is governed by banking regulations rather than whatever mish mash Coinbase is using. I don't know if they've explicitly stated that coins and fiat are protected in the same way Itbit is. They might have believed they were regulated and then certain states disagreed rather strongly.