Guy loses 240-600 BTC trying to short

[BillyBobZorton]

https://twitter.com/whalecalls/status/815598251319640064

Okcoin $BTCUSD Quarterly futures has liquidated a short position of 47857 contract at 1,065.58 - 2017-01-02 00:38:56

I tried to warm my friends on IRC about the dangers of shorting, but they wouldn't listen.. they think they can time the market, when this is impossible, you can only look forward to trying to predict the fundamentals, and the fundamentals are clearly telling us to buy and hold long term. People that bought every dip instead of trying to be the smartass that tries to short has made massive gains this year.

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[poesjesvanger]

What does 'shorting' mean?

[lionheart78]

What does 'shorting' mean?

An action of selling  or trading shares with an expectation of the price will go down over time and can rebuy at a lower price to gain profit.

Code:

A short, or short position, is a directional trading or investment strategy where the investor sells shares of
 borrowed stock in the open market. The expectation of the investor is that the price of the stock will decrease
 over time.

Read more: Short (or Short Position) Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/short.asp#ixzz4UcU6i1bq

[electronicash]

he isn't someone that fud around after shorting, is he?
that's the thing about trying to be a smart ass when they can't handle when to short and when to buy. I'm not that good at it wither but i'm buying whenever the price goes down.

[BillyBobZorton]

What does 'shorting' mean?

An action of selling  or trading shares with an expectation of the price will go down over time and can rebuy at a lower price to gain profit.

Code:

A short, or short position, is a directional trading or investment strategy where the investor sells shares of
 borrowed stock in the open market. The expectation of the investor is that the price of the stock will decrease
 over time.

Read more: Short (or Short Position) Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/short.asp#ixzz4UcU6i1bq

What I find interesting is that some people refer to shorting to not only selling and expecting to buy back cheaper, but doing so with leverage. As in shorting implies leverage (which means they are losing more money than the difference between the selling point and the new higher price after selling). You can end up in debt even.

I think most people reefer to that when they talk about shorting, which is why it's so dangerous, you can go bankrupt if you screw it up. A lot of people were aiming to short the market at 1k expecting a drop and now they are losing their shit, look at the graph.. it's 1030 already and climbing.

[Estomid]

he isn't someone that fud around after shorting, is he?
that's the thing about trying to be a smart ass when they can't handle when to short and when to buy. I'm not that good at it wither but i'm buying whenever the price goes down.

For the bitcoin, it is better not to short.

[energycr]

Why would anyone want to short when it is obvious that it is going to up from the beginning of the year?
That is a no brainer because that's what it does every year then it goes down in February or mid-month here after.
Come on now, some people especially when trading volume so high should use their brains.

[Roselop]

Maybe He will die soon because there was not anything to cover back 600btc.
He must sell his cars or house to recover his bitcoins lost. Let's pray for him.

[pereira4]

Why would anyone want to short when it is obvious that it is going to up from the beginning of the year?
That is a no brainer because that's what it does every year then it goes down in February or mid-month here after.
Come on now, some people especially when trading volume so high should use their brains.

Shorters will never learn... they are money addicts, pretty much just like gamblers, they can never stop and always want more. So they make money on the way up by buying cheaper, and instead of enjoying it, they automatically start getting into shorter mentality and expect a correction, and this correction not always happens. Bitcoin is going higher and all the 1000 dollar shorters are becoming broke right now.

[Shiroslullaby]

Anyone who can bet $300,000 to $500,000 on a short probably has enough money to cover it.
Its still probably a big loss, but I'm assuming this person probably has made millions off Bitcoin already.

Personally I would never take a short against Bitcoin right now. Things have so crazy lately. The price seems to be going up with no signs of stopping.
(Although a slight drop in price could be just as likely, I guess.)

[Ayers]

What does 'shorting' mean?

it's very simply it's mean that you sell because you believe that the price will go down, if we talk about opening position, it's mean that you speculate on the price going down, if you go long you speculate on the price going up, then if it go down when you short you close the position and win an amout on the % or if it go up you close the position if you were long

[Zadicar]

Anyone who can bet $300,000 to $500,000 on a short probably has enough money to cover it.
Its still probably a big loss, but I'm assuming this person probably has made millions off Bitcoin already.

Personally I would never take a short against Bitcoin right now. Things have so crazy lately. The price seems to be going up with no signs of stopping.
(Although a slight drop in price could be just as likely, I guess.)

You are right even those loses he experienced on doing short trades wont really matter to him but for me it does really hurt and 240-600 BTC is no joke already and i could able to buy a house on that amount. Its nor really ideal to to short trades on bitcoins price movement as of now and as you said its still increasing gradually it may fall down sometimes but only on a small amount only and goes back again and continue to rise.

[pitham1]

Why would anyone want to short when it is obvious that it is going to up from the beginning of the year?
That is a no brainer because that's what it does every year then it goes down in February or mid-month here after.
Come on now, some people especially when trading volume so high should use their brains.

That pattern will die as soon as enough people notice it.
People will start buying in December and sell it in January to take advantage of the price increase.
When that happens, the price will start falling in January.

[Bitcoinsummoner]

Why would anyone want to short when it is obvious that it is going to up from the beginning of the year?
That is a no brainer because that's what it does every year then it goes down in February or mid-month here after.
Come on now, some people especially when trading volume so high should use their brains.

That pattern will die as soon as enough people notice it.
People will start buying in December and sell it in January to take advantage of the price increase.
When that happens, the price will start falling in January.

I just also feel that the price can be fall in this month.. but there is no proof or reason that the price will crash soon..
Well for me i just relaying what is the movement from last year.. since bitcoin is gradually developed and many company are using bitcoin
It is hard to predict if the price can be fall..
So i think they are just wrong in prediction but they must monitor the movement and not short all of their holdings just few percentage. and buy if the price will goes down if not better to the rest and wait for timing..

[audaciousbeing]

Why would anyone want to short when it is obvious that it is going to up from the beginning of the year?
That is a no brainer because that's what it does every year then it goes down in February or mid-month here after.
Come on now, some people especially when trading volume so high should use their brains.

I woudnt blame them for thinking in that direction and it just went the other way around now. Its a risk a versatile trader will take going the opposite direction of the masses and this could mean gold mine.

That pattern will die as soon as enough people notice it.
People will start buying in December and sell it in January to take advantage of the price increase.
When that happens, the price will start falling in January.

This is something I have heard over and over and its actually a possibility going through historical analysis of events surrounding Bitcoin. However, the past sometimes might not be a perfect determination of the future as several events might have happened to negate what happened in the past.

[deisik]

What does 'shorting' mean?

An action of selling  or trading shares with an expectation of the price will go down over time and can rebuy at a lower price to gain profit.

Code:

A short, or short position, is a directional trading or investment strategy where the investor sells shares of
 borrowed stock in the open market. The expectation of the investor is that the price of the stock will decrease
 over time.

Read more: Short (or Short Position) Definition | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/short.asp#ixzz4UcU6i1bq

What I find interesting is that some people refer to shorting to not only selling and expecting to buy back cheaper, but doing so with leverage. As in shorting implies leverage (which means they are losing more money than the difference between the selling point and the new higher price after selling). You can end up in debt even

That's the thing that makes shorts extremely dangerous

If you buy even on borrowed funds and the price goes down, you can lose only so much. The price can't hit the floor and then go into negative territory. With shorts, it is a completely different story because you always have to borrow funds when shorting (otherwise you would be just selling your own stash and get done with that), and the price can keep on rising indefinitely long potentially putting you more and more in debt

[Doamader]

Forex is a hard thing to predict, some people has sucessfull transactions for a while, the question is for how long they will be able to keep into the gree light. I am following a thread that looks like the op has some knowledge and information to play and stay on green. But playing short at any currencie is the same to ask to loose your money, i do remember some broker i had used changes more then others brokers, and then i realized why, those broker were eating the short up and down. Even the expert traders loose, i do remember an etoro trader  that had 100 sucess trades and were stucked with one open trade at euro when it were 1.47 against dollar, those still open till today, soo if they fail to close their trading positions and do loose some money why others will only make money?

[BingoDog]

Bad period for short position. I suppose that he thought the price will fall because it's going up for a long time now but there are no actual signs for this so he made the wrong decision. This was more hazard them rational decision and that costs him but he learned something for the future.

[eaLiTy]

I tried to warm my friends on IRC about the dangers of shorting, but they wouldn't listen.. they think they can time the market, when this is impossible, you can only look forward to trying to predict the fundamentals, and the fundamentals are clearly telling us to buy and hold long term. People that bought every dip instead of trying to be the smartass that tries to short has made massive gains this year.

I can understand what motivated them to short,futures is always a high risk game and with the price of bitcoin having a stable growth till $800 they should have thought that the price would stabilize after the Christmas bubble and i am sure no one predicted the price to break the resistance of $1000 by new year and now the price is running to new heights.

[adzino]

https://twitter.com/whalecalls/status/815598251319640064

Okcoin $BTCUSD Quarterly futures has liquidated a short position of 47857 contract at 1,065.58 - 2017-01-02 00:38:56

I tried to warm my friends on IRC about the dangers of shorting, but they wouldn't listen.. they think they can time the market, when this is impossible, you can only look forward to trying to predict the fundamentals, and the fundamentals are clearly telling us to buy and hold long term. People that bought every dip instead of trying to be the smartass that tries to short has made massive gains this year.

Short selling is ALWAYS a risk and a form of gambling. They always bet against the trend of price going up. It has a limited reward but is surrounded by unlimited risks. Sadly that guy short a stock the wrong way and ended up drilling a hole on his own hand :/