Bitcoin Forum

My withdrawal has been 'pending approval' for 2 days - it seems that Zhou does not approve withdrawing money from bitcoinica.

cancel it and try again. that worked for me the one time i used bitcoinica.

i don't know though.

I've pulled BTC out.

I had to use bitcoin-based withdrawl rather than MTGOX code though.

Did it go through the 'approval' stage as well?

as long as the * is up, no one gets USD's  ;D

 :o !!! That's not how it's supposed to work, is it?

Yeah - that would mean mixing client funds with company funds (MF Global anyone).  Not that this would be especially shocking after mybitcoin.

What do you expect from a 17 year old running a bucket shop from Singapore.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that CITI had seized or cancelled his account or something similar as they've been very publicly anti bitcoin both with Th and at that show late last fall or was it early winter where Donald Norman debated them.

that IS how it works.  the * on the ask price (BUY button) means all USD reserves have been depleted and used to buy Bitcoins on mtgox.

Reserve does not mean client money - but yeah - on this wild west this should not be a big surprise.

look at it from Z's perspective

folks are screaming to be allowed to go long on margin

and screaming for instant access to their fiat

whats he supposed to poop USD out his ass??

I do not use his service, though the show is amusing, but there is no real indication I have seen that he is a bad actor or is ripping anyone off.

You play in the bucket shop and they get low on funds?  Cross your fingers and hope they do not fold up altogether.

I remember him claiming many times, in this forum, that bitcoinica is not a bucket shop, but yeah - why should I believe that?

just to clarify, I do not use the term disparagingly

I believe there is a place in a free market for bitcoinica's services, I see no indication as yet that Z is operating counter to his client's interests...though that danger is always present

the simple fact that some orders are settled internally without any formal transactions in the underlying makes it a bucket shop under US law, which is fine with me, people are assumed to be adults and nation states and their antiquated legal structures are obsolete

it is a brave new world, all the warning labels and safety restraints have been removed, have fun, play at your own risk

If Bitcoinica is a bucket shop then you'll not see the asterisk and instead we let you buy whatever you want and then dump coins in the market to force liquidate you and pocket all your money.

This is not what it happened. So we are not a bucket shop.

There's no better way to prove it either. We have already disclosed the daily hedging volume.

Fair enough. But what of the OP's question, then? Is there any particular situation currently in play that's preventing payouts? Surely settled client USD aren't counted as part of the reserve...

That's nice (you could also reveal al transactions like MtGox - but this is just a side note).   The more important question is - what is the problem with withdrawals!?  Why you don't approve them?   Is that related to MtGox limits?  Or you have mixed client funds with company reserves?

Mt. Gox withdrawal limit is the only thing right now. Bitcoin withdrawals have always been fine.

OK.  I have some BTC bought on leverage - plus the pending withdrawal.  Assuming that my marging should cover the BTC at the current price without leverage - how could I withdraw the BTC instead of USD?

My impression was that this would greatly increase the danger of squeezes, since anyone could calculate how much money a squeeze would cost them.

bingo

Liquidate->Exchange Profits->Withdrawal

As for doing it without losing  a few percent, I don't think it's possible.

The last few times I took profit I had to transfer out in BTC instead of USD.  Unfortunately Bitcoinica's fees for buying BTC with USD are outrageous.  Gotta pay to play.

Yeah I canceled my 4 day pending MtGox withdraw and got robbed on the conversion and then cashed out in BTC in 10 minutes.

Trades data is not enough to calculate the zhoutong price (and it also does not need to be associated with any account id - just the price and amount).

Hmm - but I would not be able to do that while there is a * at the buy button?

I've always been able to exchange my margin when the * is up.

Well they took mine..

I have a pending withdraw for MTGOXUSD that has been 2 days, thus far.  If I don't see something soon I may have to initiate a wire.

OK - exchanging to BTC and doing a BTC transfer worked.  Maybe not in minutes - but in about an hour it was on my MtGox account.

MtGox requires 6 confirmations... this should take an hour.

And you eat a lot of profits exchanging on bitcoinica.