Bitcoinica Help...

[Scott J]

Newbie question...

Say I want to bet that Bitcoin will fall to 1.95 in the next 24 hours, how do I do that?

I'm currently reading up on different types of positions, but I'm struggling to get my head round it when I'm this tired!

Thanks 

[avoid3d]

Go to bitcoinica and buy a negative amount of bitcoins. then sell them if you think the price is low enough. profit. OR the price could go up and you would lose money.

[Bitman_Began]

LOL, wasn't he right?

[phorensic]

Go to bitcoinica and buy a negative amount of bitcoins. then sell them if you think the price is low enough. profit. OR the price could go up and you would lose money.

Isn't this the same as if you put in a positive number and hit sell?  It shows up as negative on your trade list and you are effectively "short".  Then you hit liquidate at your profit percentage goal.  Then you learn how to get crafty with the Place Order button and have it do that stuff automatically and set a stop loss so you don't get a margin call or lose big.

[avoid3d]

Yeah the sell button is just for people who cant do math.

The api doesnt even have a sell function

buying negative = selling.

[P4man]

To clarify further, bitcoinica gives you  leverage, so you can sell more than you own. You essentially borrow those BTCs from them. That way you leverage your profits if BTC goes go down, and you leverage your losses should it go up. If it goes up too much, you end up with nothing, as bitcoinica will issue a margin call,  automatically buy BTCs  to ensure you can pay back the loaned BTCs. Whatever you had, is lost then.

[nmat]

Newbie question...

Say I want to bet that Bitcoin will fall to 1.95 in the next 24 hours, how do I do that?

I'm currently reading up on different types of positions, but I'm struggling to get my head round it when I'm this tired!

Thanks 

Just keep in mind that you can easily lose a lot of money in Bitcoinica. If you are not familiar with it, you should try it first with smaller amounts of money.

[P4man]

Just keep in mind that you can easily lose a lot of money in Bitcoinica. If you are not familiar with it, you should try it first with smaller amounts of money.

What are you talking about? Everyone makes profit at Bitcoinica. Its all I read. And it makes complete sense!

[Scott J]

LOL, wasn't he right?

It got close didn't it?

Made a very small amount of money! Will get my head stuck into all this tomorrow