Understanding Tradehill Commission Fees

[BitFun]

Hey all,

So I'm writing up a program to calculate the trade fees for me and spit out what I need to sell for to break even after a purchase. (For Scalping)

I'm a little confused on how to calculate the fees though.

So here's what my impression is.

When I buy bitcoin: tradehill takes the commission rate out of the USD you are spending then buys the bitcoin.

When i sell bitcoin: the Commission Rate is taken from my bitcoin then what's left is converted into USD.

Is this correct? Does it even matter which currency i take the commission from when i write the program?

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[deepceleron]

Tradehill always takes their fee in USD, likely so they don't make half their profit in Bitcoin, and have to deal with trading themselves and accounting weirdness this would cause a business.

If you buy dollars, you spend the amount in bitcoins you specify, and your fee is taken from the dollars you bought. If you buy bitcoins with dollars, you must pay additional dollars as a fee.

Obtained Amount	Obtained Currency	Paid Amount	Paid Currency	Commission Amount	Commission Currency	Final_Obtained Amount	Final_Obtained Currency	Final_Paid Amount	Final_Paid Currency
27.2160000000	USD	2.0000000000	BTC	0.1469664000	USD	27.0690336000	USD	2.0000000000	BTC
1.0000000000	BTC	13.0000000000	USD	0.0702000000	USD	1.0000000000	BTC	13.0702000000	USD

(this is with a commission rate of 0.54% - 0.54% of $27.216 is $0.1469664; 0.54% of $13.00 is $0.0702)

The beauty of exchanges is they charge both the seller and buyer a fee for the currency exchange, in essence taxing the same transaction twice.

[BitFun]

Tradehill always takes their fee in USD, likely so they don't make half their profit in Bitcoin, and have to deal with trading themselves and accounting weirdness this would cause a business.

If you buy dollars, you spend the amount in bitcoins you specify, and your fee is taken from the dollars you bought. If you buy bitcoins with dollars, you must pay additional dollars as a fee.

Obtained Amount	Obtained Currency	Paid Amount	Paid Currency	Commission Amount	Commission Currency	Final_Obtained Amount	Final_Obtained Currency	Final_Paid Amount	Final_Paid Currency
27.2160000000	USD	2.0000000000	BTC	0.1469664000	USD	27.0690336000	USD	2.0000000000	BTC
1.0000000000	BTC	13.0000000000	USD	0.0702000000	USD	1.0000000000	BTC	13.0702000000	USD

The beauty of exchanges is they charge both the seller and buyer a fee for the currency exchange, in essence taxing the same transaction twice.

Thanks so much, so if i buy my entire USD wallet's worth of bitcoins then it will just subtract the fee from what I'm purchasing correct? Also this means i can just take the transaction fee (doubled to include both buy and sell) from the USD buy amount, and as long as my profit will be larger than that I'm in the green correct?

[deepceleron]

Thanks so much, so if i buy my entire USD wallet's worth of bitcoins then it will just subtract the fee from what I'm purchasing correct? Also this means i can just take the transaction fee (doubled to include both buy and sell) from the USD buy amount, and as long as my profit will be larger than that I'm in the green correct?

It's the opposite of that - when buying Bitcoins, you've got to play the "how much BTC can I buy" quote game, since Tradehill won't let you simply spend all your USD. You specify how much BTC you want and it tells you the cost in dollars + fee (and if you have enough in dollars).

If your fee is .6%, then to sell and buy back BTC, your fee is 1.2%. I wouldn't sell for a spread less than 2.5%; if you want to pay more in fees than your own profit, you should go on eBay.

[BitFun]

Aahh ok thanks, I'm used to mtgox I just switched over.