I've just switched on a PC I haven't used for 3 months.  Had no need to use it until today to recover some data.  Just for the heck of it I loaded the bitcoin client (the machine was once used for GPU mining) and saw I had 0.67BTC.  Big suprise, I thought the wallet had none.  I've left the client running and it's slowly but steadily ticking over with more and more bitcoins added to the balance.

I had absolutely no idea I had any in the Bitcoin ether.  A pleasant susprise, to be sure, but it also highlighted to me how easy it is to forget bitcoins and possibly lose them forever.  I wonder how many have already been lost and cannot be recovered?

Just a thought... if this 'manipulator' is so predictable that after the event many people comment 'of course he did that' and 'I knew that would happen', why not take advantage of this apparently predictable behaviour to make some quick profits?

LOL!   

I've just put a few Bids in at $7 just for the hell of it, so I can be The Manipulator too.  It's fun.  Others should join in 


Very true.  People look at the 'walls' as if they're meant to be solid.  If 20k of bitcoins are headed towards my price point you can be damn sure I'll raise or lower my bids to buy at the estimated optimal price.  There is no rule in the markets that once a bid or ask has been placed that it must be left there until executed.

Possibly.


I'm all for people throwing money at bitcoins.  Just make sure it's money you can afford to lose.


Bitcoin is a high risk and highly speculative investment.  There are no guarantees.  Where people previously saw guaranteed price rises and returns (based on difficulty increases) some got burned quite badly. 

Maybe.  We've seen plenty of mini rallies before.


Investing would make sense, but playing with the market and seeing how it reacts would be even more worthwhile.  On professional exchanges traders need to deal with various pesky laws regarding pumping and dumping, while bitcoin is free of government intervention.  No laws about what you can and can't do.  Who wouldn't want to have a play with that?  The freedom from government intervention cuts both ways.  If MtGox is located in Japan and I'm in Australia, pumping and dumping a commodity run and controlled by no one, whose police force is going to come chasing me?  Sounds like fun.

Damn that manipulator!  He/she/they/it just threw 1400 bitcoins into the bids and we're back below $6 again.  If only people wouldn't sell the price would go up!.... (or maybe people think this rally is as good as it gets and the smart money is bailing out).

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  

Someone should teach this manipulator a lesson and barrel $100k+ into that wall to knock it down.  That will show him/her/them/it!

Grab the popcorn.  Price action is beginning to get interesting.

If bitcoin can sustain a long rally then it will naturally attract a lot more speculators and the price will go parabolic.  We've seen this before.  We know how it ends.  People like to say 'it's different this time'.  It really isn't.

Sounds like a good idea.  If people wanted full transparency to see who is 'talking their book' then include a summary of their trading positions too.  The latter isn't possible, but we can dream 

Sometimes I use random numbers.  If everyone wants to pile in at $5.80 then my trades might not be executed.  But if I use $5.78921 then I will be ahead of the pack.  Someone else might then say 'aha! I'm smarter, I'll grab $5.77999', and so on.

Sometimes I use funny pricing just for the hell of it.

Or it's the Manipulator playing with your mind 

The so called 'wall' is now at $7.  The reason is simple: it's a nice, round, psychologically cozy number that traders like to use. 

I had all sorts of Bids at $6.1, $6.2, $6.3, all the way up to $6.7 that were executed.  A few hours ago I would have been part of the 'wall' and viewed with suspicion by some as a market manipulator.  I put the staggered Bids and Asks in to be executed when the market soars or sours, just like it has in the last couple of hours.  New Bids have been placed just in case the rally peters out, like the last one did a few days ago.  People read too much into 'walls'.

Bumpy ride is true alright.  Price is gyrating between $6.20 and $6.70 right now.  Most of my Asks have been executed so now it's time for the rally to tank and execute my new Bids.  Rinse, repeat 

At that time they will plot the 'rally' on a log graph and state it's still happening 

Super bubbles rarely inflate to their former glories.  Even something as well known and almost universally valued as gold has still not recovered its inflation adjusted bubble highs of 1980.  The inflation adjusted parity figure is around $2700/oz.

Most merchants pay less than 3% to credit card companies.  If bit-pay wants to be widely adopted it needs to offer rates much lower than the existing credit card infrastructure.  Credit cards are widely accepted and used.  Bitcoin is still trying to get into the market.  Charging as much or more than credit cards doesn't seem like a smart way to attract business. 

Bitcoin's price can move rather rapidly.  You're assuming one set (one bid wall) is the right trading approach and the right price.  Maybe various people have different opinions about where the price is going.  Some may put bids in at $5.45, some at $5.40, others may prefer $5.30.  Prices are not set by one person (the alleged manipulator).


It's about price volatility again.  Someone fires 20k bitcoins into the bids and fulfills many of the orders.  I regularly put staggered bids and asks onto MtGox for this very reason.  You would see my bids as manipulation.  I see it as smart hedging against risk and taking advantage of market volatility when it occurs.  If the price starts falling because people are selling like mad then I withdraw my bids in anticipation of a lower price.  That's not manipulating the market.  That's just not being stupid.


Markets don't really work like that.  Have a look at share trading and you'll always see a lot of 'depth': bids and asks way above and below the current spot price.  If everyone is only buying at the spot price than the spot price isn't going to move.  People can't see how much interest there is in the market.  Someone wanting to sell 20k of bitcoins would see only a few dozen being traded at the current spot price.  Could they sell those 20k in one hit without market depth?  They couldn't.

I get the feeling that this mysterious 'manipulator' (always singular, always one person) is being blamed for odd market trading, and even blamed for bitcoin's continuous flagging price.  It all sounds a little like a conspiracy theory with very little evidence.

Why is the price going up now?  It could be market psychology.  If most people start to think 'it can't fall much lower from here' that's the beginning of a rally.  They believe the price will either stagnate or go up, which is a good reason to buy now.  The slowly rising price attracts more buyers looking to get in on the trend and you have a rally.

$5.50 now, which is a moderate increase over recent trends.  Previously the higher price didn't hold so it'll be interesting to see whether speculators believe this time is different.