Why does the mt gox ask wall always look the same?

[bb113]

There are always a bunch of asks up to the nearest important psychological number, and then pretty flat with a few big asks at further psych numbers. People are afraid of something? Or just not keeping btc at mt gox unless they plan to sell soon?

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[adamstgBit]

There are always a bunch of asks up to the nearest important psychological number, and then pretty flat with a few big asks at further psych numbers. People are afraid of something? Or just not keeping btc at mt gox unless they plan to sell soon?

* Jedi mind trick hand wave thing *
There are very little coins left to be bought, the higher we go the less coins are available on the market. you must buy now.

[damnek]

I think it's a market maker doing that, maybe mtgox' in-house market maker even. I've also noticed that the walls which are placed at nice round numbers, reach up to nice round numbers in volume too, like 20k, 40k.

[notig]

Maybe it's because there are a handful of people who are trying to keep the price from bubbling to far out of control and also at the same time selling a little sliver of their hoard. Someone with a million bitcoins could put up walls all day and by the time we got to 50 they could have made millions

[Stephen Gornick]

Or just not keeping btc at mt gox unless they plan to sell soon?

+1

Because bitcoins can be transferred in about an hour or less there is the ability to withdraw coins until the point that they will be used for imminent trading.  So the current order depth won't show this supply as those coins haven't even been transferred to the exchanges yet nonetheless listed for sale.


Also, the walls sometimes crumble from canceled sell orders rather than being chewed through by executed trades.  So some of the coins in the wall at $30 simply ended up being moved to the new wall at $32 after trading at $30 began. 

The walls used to be more dynamic and impressive back when those following technical analysis were a bigger part of the market.  A failed assault on a wall could trigger a 20% reversal.   Now in this rally the walls are simply like mini speed bumps -- nothing that cause you to change direction nor even spill your coffee if you hit one when not looking.

[lebing]

The walls used to be more dynamic and impressive back when those following technical analysis were a bigger part of the market.  A failed assault on a wall could trigger a 20% reversal.   Now in this rally the walls are simply like mini speed bumps -- nothing that cause you to change direction nor even spill your coffee if you hit one when not looking.

lol

[b!z]

blame the bears.

[justusranvier]

The walls used to be more dynamic and impressive back when those following technical analysis were a bigger part of the market.  A failed assault on a wall could trigger a 20% reversal.   Now in this rally the walls are simply like mini speed bumps -- nothing that cause you to change direction nor even spill your coffee if you hit one when not looking.

A lot of the buying pressure might be coming from people who buy from Coinbase. They aren't actively trading, just buying.

[justusranvier]

I've bought bitcoins from them that went into cold storage.

[sounds]

OTC trading is also seeing heavy buy pressure.

[notme]

blame the bears.

Yep.  They blew their load too early and there is nothing to hold us back anymore.

[Ichthyo]

Maybe it's because there are a handful of people who are trying to keep the price from bubbling to far out of control and also at the same time selling a little sliver of their hoard. Someone with a million bitcoins could put up walls all day and by the time we got to 50 they could have made millions

that, plus you can often observe secondary, smaller, not so obvious walls popping up as a support, when the price bounces back on the next wall on top. If you're strong enough really to dominate the market movement, this could be a nice strategy for making easy money, and /or a strategy to get into the market without driving the rates up too much. Place a huge wall, watch the market bounce back, absorb some of the movement at a lower price, let those suckers buy into the wall above until you've made enough profit, pull the wall. Rinse repeat.



PS: of course the risk is when suddenly another guy with even larger balls swallows your wall....

[twolifeinexile]

Maybe it's because there are a handful of people who are trying to keep the price from bubbling to far out of control and also at the same time selling a little sliver of their hoard. Someone with a million bitcoins could put up walls all day and by the time we got to 50 they could have made millions

that, plus you can often observe secondary, smaller, not so obvious walls popping up as a support, when the price bounces back on the next wall on top. If you're strong enough really to dominate the market movement, this could be a nice strategy for making easy money, and /or a strategy to get into the market without driving the rates up too much. Place a huge wall, watch the market bounce back, absorb some of the movement at a lower price, let those suckers buy into the wall above until you've made enough profit, pull the wall. Rinse repeat.
PS: of course the risk is when suddenly another guy with even larger balls swallows your wall....

This maybe just MtGox itself, especially since they have operating cost and employee wages to pay and their commission is bitcoin, so they are always in a position to sell some bitcoin, then why not make some more along the way and also "manage" the volatility a little bit to make more transactions?