Help in interpreting bid/ask charts

[advanced]

Hi everybody,
I'm not an expert in economic, but I'd like to learn how to read (and interpret) the charts showing bids and asks.

Can someone give me some hints? Tutorials? Examples?


For instance : lets break down the chart below

• What is the red/green line? red= people selling ?
• What does the numbers on the left vertical axes represent?
• What does the numbers on the right vertical axes represent?
• How on heart can bitcoinity know that "xxx BTC are needed for price yyy$"? Those are pre-scheduled orders? where are they published? Are they guesstimations?
• What does red/green columns represent?

For now enough with questions Thanks!

[simondlr]

These type of graphs are usually more than one overlayed over each other.

The red and green lines are market depth indicators. They show much BTC needs to be exchanged to reach a certain value. Bids = Green line. These are the prices which people want to BUY Bitcoins. Ask = Red line. These are the prices in which people want to SELL Bitcoin. You can see these walls (as can be seen at $250). That means that there are a lot of people wanting to sell BTC at that price level, in fact 1047 BTC. Bitcoinity know this because it is checking the market orders on an exchange (say Mt. Gox).

Have a look bitcoin.clarkmoody.com as well.

I'm not entirely sure what the 'change bars' are. Can anyone fill in?

[advanced]

great explanation simon. Still I don't understand how can you see how many people is willing to sell @ 250

[ColdHardMetal]

great explanation simon. Still I don't understand how can you see how many people is willing to sell @ 250

That data comes from the MTGox order book.

[advanced]

thanks
So everybody can access it via API : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MtGox/API/HTTP/v1#Multi_Currency_depth
right?

[simondlr]

thanks
So everybody can access it via API : https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MtGox/API/HTTP/v1#Multi_Currency_depth
right?

Spot on. If you are thinking of using, do also use other other exchanges' APIs as well. Part of last night's crash was due to the reliance on Mt. Gox for trading AND checking the price.