Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: speeder on November 18, 2011, 12:15:29 AM



Title: Evil slippage on bitcoinica
Post by: speeder on November 18, 2011, 12:15:29 AM
So... I put a stop a 2.8

Then the huge selloff happened, and my actual buys happened at 2.5 for a MASSIVE loss.

How I prevent stuff like that from happening again?


Title: Re: Evil slippage on bitcoinica
Post by: zhoutong on November 18, 2011, 12:48:17 AM
So... I put a stop a 2.8

Then the huge selloff happened, and my actual buys happened at 2.5 for a MASSIVE loss.

How I prevent stuff like that from happening again?

Unfortunately, technically you can't do anything to prevent things like this. You simply can't sell at any higher price during the sell off. And you can't give up selling either, because the price will dip further.

It rarely happens, most slippage is within the spread, but when bad things happen, we can't do anything about it.

Simply use less leverage, and distribute your stop orders in different price ranges to survive market manipulation.


Title: Re: Evil slippage on bitcoinica
Post by: phantomcircuit on November 18, 2011, 08:52:58 PM
So... I put a stop a 2.8

Then the huge selloff happened, and my actual buys happened at 2.5 for a MASSIVE loss.

How I prevent stuff like that from happening again?

Think of a stop orders carry an inherent risk that someone will run the stops, I've been talking about this for a while.

Stop orders on volatile exchanges are pretty much a guaranteed way to lose.


Title: Re: Evil slippage on bitcoinica
Post by: zhoutong on November 19, 2011, 01:39:50 AM
So... I put a stop a 2.8

Then the huge selloff happened, and my actual buys happened at 2.5 for a MASSIVE loss.

How I prevent stuff like that from happening again?

Think of a stop orders carry an inherent risk that someone will run the stops, I've been talking about this for a while.

Stop orders on volatile exchanges are pretty much a guaranteed way to lose.

You're correct, but Bitcoinica doesn't publicize its order book. So running the stops most likely will be unintentional instead of targeted.