Bitcoin Forum

I've noticed that when I put in an ask of ~50BTC on mtgox slightly below the current ask, immediately a similarly sized order is placed in front of it at 0.0001 or so less. If I hop over that, it happens again. I can walk the order down this way until at some point it gives up.

Hypothesis: There is a bot trying to maximize sell orders by constantly putting itself in front of the line, but not too far ahead. This way it can squeeze out more usd per btc sold.

Idea: If you are looking to buy and have some spare btc, you can try "walking" down the ask.

Has anyone else noticed this or tried messing with it?

Welcome to 2012.

Fair enough. You could have said welcome to 1812 and been about as accurate I suppose.

Really? then you miss the old saying " Bots can only be beaten by a better bot"

Your idea is as old as a door knob

Noticed it before as well and was able to walk it close enough to the buy side for it to retreat.

I'll assume English is not your native language and resolve to not be so vague next time I try to agree with you ;)

Yes, I agree with you that we are talking about fundamental tactics used in any auction like situation. That's why I said 1812 would have likewise been a year filled with examples of people bidding incrementally on things.

The more specific point I wanted to make was that if this process is automated, you can use it to your advantage to gain a slight advantage against a seller bot by testing their boundaries (you don't even need your own bot, just the ability to enter/remove orders reasonably quickly). Not rocket science, but I thought it might be worth discussing.

Has anyone noticed any other "old fashioned" or new tactics that could be exploited?

Real markets also have these front running bots that pisses small manual traders off just as much.

In Jesse Livermore's book "REMINISCENCES OF A STOCK OPERATOR" The main character decribes how "unfair" an advantage the traders that know the "tape boy" have.

You bribe the intern to signal you acoss the floor when your limit is reached, the you can yell your order the instant the chaulk is put to the balckboard just before the price is written.

That was bot trading a hundred yers ago!

hownew.ru

It is annoying, but it also contributes to market liquidity. It's not all bad :)

With the volatility in the market, it is a waste of time to try and walk the bots down to a price that you want to pay for bitcoins.  I have found that you just put in your buy order and let the bots play.  It always gets filled...

Look at market depth. There are 14,807 BTC (1) per $68.91  (total 81,683).  No intention to sell them but keep buying bots on $30 :-)