How about this Bitcoinica strategy?

[notme]

My understanding of a negative base price is this: you have the bitcoins in the position for free, plus bitcoins*abs(baseprice) base profit.  Therefore, your unrealized profit is this base profit plus the value of the coins.

[Otoh]

"Of course this only apple for long positions."

apple - is that the mac auto correct, I've just got my first one & it keeps doing this, Gox it turns in to box etc

I expect as you say it wouldn't be a problem to move in to negative base price, I've put a limit sale order in for higher up the line though as until I close out the position I am still $567 down from my previous losses, though I'd be interested in any advise about why it might be advantageous to just hold it

[sgbett]

haha yes it must be. if i miss the 's' off applies it does become apple

[Otoh]

http://damnyouautocorrect.com/13603/the-25-funniest-autocorrects-of-dyacs-first-year/

[Otoh]

Ah home at last & I looked out of my total piece of shit & marvelled at the amazing crap to be seen there

mac auto correct for windows & vista

[cypherdoc]

You should buy back in before your profit evaporates.

The idea is to keep it open so that when we spike back up, I can sell again, then buy out when we spike down again, lather rinse repeat.

first of all congrats on what looks to have been a tremendous short from $18.

i agree with notme.  if u believe we're headed back up towards $18, why not close the 1 BTC short now, then re short @ $18?

in fact, if you had closed this 1 BTC short @ $2, you would have made an additional profits by this point.

He dint short at $18 (was bitcoinica open then?), he shorted at a much lower price and the closed out all but 1BTC

The way bitcoinica works is it recalculates the base price when you add or reduce a position.

e.g. Short 2BTC at $10, bid drops to $5
bitcoinica shows: Base price $10

Buy 1BTC @ $5
bitcoinica shows: Base Price $15

Exactly.  The idea is to keep my base price high on this account so I can have it locked & loaded when we reach the peak.

this still doesn't make any sense.  if u think the price is headed to say $15, you're best off buying to cover this 1 BTC short, keeping all your profits in USD until we hit $15, then re shorting from there.

[Crypt_Current]

You should buy back in before your profit evaporates.

The idea is to keep it open so that when we spike back up, I can sell again, then buy out when we spike down again, lather rinse repeat.

first of all congrats on what looks to have been a tremendous short from $18.

i agree with notme.  if u believe we're headed back up towards $18, why not close the 1 BTC short now, then re short @ $18?

in fact, if you had closed this 1 BTC short @ $2, you would have made an additional profits by this point.

He dint short at $18 (was bitcoinica open then?), he shorted at a much lower price and the closed out all but 1BTC

The way bitcoinica works is it recalculates the base price when you add or reduce a position.

e.g. Short 2BTC at $10, bid drops to $5
bitcoinica shows: Base price $10

Buy 1BTC @ $5
bitcoinica shows: Base Price $15

Exactly.  The idea is to keep my base price high on this account so I can have it locked & loaded when we reach the peak.

this still doesn't make any sense.  if u think the price is headed to say $15, you're best off buying to cover this 1 BTC short, keeping all your profits in USD until we hit $15, then re shorting from there.

My base price isn't necessarily always this high ;-)

[Crypt_Current]

You should buy back in before your profit evaporates.

The idea is to keep it open so that when we spike back up, I can sell again, then buy out when we spike down again, lather rinse repeat.

first of all congrats on what looks to have been a tremendous short from $18.

i agree with notme.  if u believe we're headed back up towards $18, why not close the 1 BTC short now, then re short @ $18?

in fact, if you had closed this 1 BTC short @ $2, you would have made an additional profits by this point.

He dint short at $18 (was bitcoinica open then?), he shorted at a much lower price and the closed out all but 1BTC

The way bitcoinica works is it recalculates the base price when you add or reduce a position.

e.g. Short 2BTC at $10, bid drops to $5
bitcoinica shows: Base price $10

Buy 1BTC @ $5
bitcoinica shows: Base Price $15

Exactly.  The idea is to keep my base price high on this account so I can have it locked & loaded when we reach the peak.

this still doesn't make any sense.  if u think the price is headed to say $15, you're best off buying to cover this 1 BTC short, keeping all your profits in USD until we hit $15, then re shorting from there.

And that's exactly the strategy, but the way Bitcoinica works, it does not require you to close the position.

[notme]

I don't understand what holding the 1btc short gains you.

[Crypt_Current]

I don't understand what holding the 1btc short gains you.

It's not necessarily 1btc.  But to my way of thinking (which may be flawed, but I will find out through trial and error), it is easier to keep an open position with a known base price to work with, rather than guessing where to start.  Because I am not good at tech analysis yet ;-)

[cypherdoc]

You should buy back in before your profit evaporates.

The idea is to keep it open so that when we spike back up, I can sell again, then buy out when we spike down again, lather rinse repeat.

first of all congrats on what looks to have been a tremendous short from $18.

i agree with notme.  if u believe we're headed back up towards $18, why not close the 1 BTC short now, then re short @ $18?

in fact, if you had closed this 1 BTC short @ $2, you would have made an additional profits by this point.

He dint short at $18 (was bitcoinica open then?), he shorted at a much lower price and the closed out all but 1BTC

The way bitcoinica works is it recalculates the base price when you add or reduce a position.

e.g. Short 2BTC at $10, bid drops to $5
bitcoinica shows: Base price $10

Buy 1BTC @ $5
bitcoinica shows: Base Price $15

Exactly.  The idea is to keep my base price high on this account so I can have it locked & loaded when we reach the peak.

this still doesn't make any sense.  if u think the price is headed to say $15, you're best off buying to cover this 1 BTC short, keeping all your profits in USD until we hit $15, then re shorting from there.

My base price isn't necessarily always this high ;-)

first of all, if the price goes to $18, your base price for this 1btc will come down.

if you then short 100 btc @ $18, your base price will then be less than $18, when added to the base price of the 1btc.

if u close the 1btc short now, wait until the price hits $18, then short 100 btc @ $18, your base price will then be $18.

[Crypt_Current]

first of all, if the price goes to $18, your base price for this 1btc will come down.

I don't think this is correct.  Base price only changes when you buy/sell.

[notme]

Displayed base price you are correct

Base price when you calculate in the loss from holding short all the way up to 18, cyperdoc is correct.

[cypherdoc]

Displayed base price you are correct

Base price when you calculate in the loss from holding short all the way up to 18, cyperdoc is correct.

if the displayed base price doesn't change, that is misleading to the acct holder and could result in miscalculations if he doesn't know this fact.

and that doesn't change the fact that he should cover now if the price does indeed go straight up to $18.

[Crypt_Current]

Displayed base price you are correct

Base price when you calculate in the loss from holding short all the way up to 18, cyperdoc is correct.

if the displayed base price doesn't change, that is misleading to the acct holder and could result in miscalculations if he doesn't know this fact.

and that doesn't change the fact that he should cover now if the price does indeed go straight up to $18.

The base price changes.
And this short account IS my cover.