Bitcoins/Litecoins/Virtual Currencies

Dropped all the way to $6500 today. What $7.8 wall?

Apparently I shouldn't have mentioned it since people still don't understand that it was meant to be a short term trade. (hours)

Trader sentiment is a factor price movements. Particularly in bitcoin, which is a small community compared to traditional assets, with a younger audience. Nerds who hold thousands of coins can (and do) move the price considerably by themselves. The November crash for example was caused by a single trader (Roger Ver, the largest BTC holder, or used to be) selling BTC and buying BCH. Michael Novogratz, the billionaire, tweeted that he was buying around 8k.

But by all means, explain to me how the pro traders do things if my logic is flawed

Jysin said:

Dropped all the way to $6500 today. What $7.8 wall?

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Don't you read social media? God...

Torrid said:

But by all means, explain to me how the pro traders do things if my logic is flawed

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Well, for one you've been using the term "short" incorrectly. I had no idea you were trying to say you were day trading BTC when you kept saying short. Shorting in the trading world means something completely different.

Sigh. When I said 'short term' in my post above yours, I meant brief in time, not short selling.

In my post yesterday, I mentioned that I shorted bitcoin, which is to bet on a price decline, which I did briefly after I ended by long as it became obvious that the rally was failing

I'm surprised shorting BTC is even an option. Where are you finding people to borrow BTC from? Or are you shorting GBTC?

Most of the shorting is done on BitMEX, which is a derivatives exchange, so it doesn't touch the actual asset; just facilitates bets on price and matches traders with each other. To short there is to be matched with somebody who wants to long.

There are exchanges where you can loan BTC to shorters though. Poloniex and Bitfinex for example. If you're holding for the long haul and don't want to trade, lending your BTC there is an option, but carries counterparty risk of course.

Yea, I sit at my computer trying to "get" people.

I'm like rhythm.

I think part of the confusion here is that, in crypto land, trades are extremely frictionless; so traders can be doing dozens in a night, or program a bot to do thousands. Combine that with insane volatility and basically day trading is trading. Certainly you have to very nimble. BTC traders set price alarms and have frequently interrupted sleep cycles. (although I'm certainly not that leet)

Crypto trading is absolutely used as a casino. I fully agree with that. Altcoins especially. More fun than a real casino!

When you trade, you move your BTC into an exchange, where it's pooled with everybody else's and they keep track of how much of it is yours in their internal database. Trades are instant because it's a centralized database used by all the members of the exchange, so it's not touching a blockchain.

Although there are starting to be decentralized exchanges that are transacting to the blockchain directly, but they are very new and not very usable yet. (and expensive/slow as expected) Lightning networks are supposed to make this much better.

You guys just don't get it. It's just way too complicated. This is something only the "pro" traders know about.

Heard something about litepay linked to litecoins - "a visa in your pocket linked to ltc" it was said...this going to turn it around for ltc? or will it, like all others be linked to the rise and fall of btc

Torrid said:

Trades are instant because it's a centralized database used by all the members of the exchange, so it's not touching a blockchain.

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Doesn't this totally invalidate the purpose of the chain?

I feel like crypto itself probably has a lot of merit, but it's been packaged up like an investment asset and dumped directly onto traditional exchanges with all of the same problems we've always had.

I saw this really awesome article and I wasn't sure where to put it. Music House? Technology and Gadgets? Product Reviews? Idfk. After at least 3 or 4 seconds of deliberation, I'm confident this thread is the most appropriate.

Brilliant Pebbles Advanced Audio Video Tweak

All y'all dudes that like making easy money without doing any work or providing any services need to get into the audiophile accessory business. If a bag of polished rock chips is worth $39, just imagine how much more they would be worth if they were permanently built into the cables to begin with. Imagine the profit margins if you were to build an entire speaker stand or entertainment center out of these miracle rocks. The sky's the limits!

Heylel said:

Doesn't this totally invalidate the purpose of the chain?

I feel like crypto itself probably has a lot of merit, but it's been packaged up like an investment asset and dumped directly onto traditional exchanges with all of the same problems we've always had.

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The centralization of exchanges is absolutely one of the larger concerns. However it's possible to buy BTC without using an exchange. LocalBitcoins.com is a service that matches buyers and sellers of BTC locally so you can drive to somebody's house (or meet somewhere publicly or however they do it) and just pay cash for BTC from people. Private keys can be printed on slips of paper which can later be redeemed for coin, so you don't even need to bring along a computer in public to transact, which makes transactions fairly secret. If BTC isn't banned in your country, there isn't much reason not to use a service like Coinbase though. (unless you REALLY want privacy, which is a legitimate desire, but not worth the hassle of localbitcoins.com to most people)

This is a problem being worked on however. Bisq - The P2P exchange network is a new decentralized exchange that allows you to buy and trade coin without a middleman, and even facilitates bank transfers so you can buy and sell with fiat. I'm not terribly familiar with it however, but it looks pretty neat.

Also it's important to understand that you don't need to keep your coins in an exchange at all-- in fact it's good practice not to do so. Once you take your BTC out of an exchange and into your private wallet, then nobody can seize it from you. Hacked computers are a concern, but you don't even need your coins in a wallet that is on a computer. All you need is the wallet seed or the private key on paper somewhere, or memorized.

Xadion said:

Heard something about litepay linked to litecoins - "a visa in your pocket linked to ltc" it was said...this going to turn it around for ltc? or will it, like all others be linked to the rise and fall of btc

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Just another promotion to float bag holders. God knows there are a whole lot of bag holders this week.