I want to say that I don't think you
So this is basically a brokerage. You let your customers trade with one another and you hedge their positions on the exchange. Meanwhile, you extract a spread from all transactions.
I will pass on this product, as I am developing my own web-based trading platform that actually sends orders to the market.
I don't mean this to say that your product will fail. This is basically the only way that consumer forex works on the market today. You will find plenty of happy customers. I just wish you would be a little more up front with the details of how this works since your customers are used to all orders going to the market.
I understand your point. But I target different customers.
I don't want to grab market share from Mt. Gox or TradeHill. They are, instead, my partners.
The only way to build a new Bitcoin trading platform today is to get investors from elsewhere. Our aim is forex traders (especially day traders).
Mt. Gox and TradeHill are like stock markets, which are okay for a relatively small market like Bitcoin. But what if we want to make it larger? This is how abstraction comes in.
My design approach is to take out the noise: If Bitcoin is really a currency, why should we care so much about BTCUSD's volume? Why should we even see the order book? I know these are two important components for every market, but it's not important to everyone. Here, Bitcoinica guarantees liquidity, gives people the opportunities to use margin and do short selling, and giving quotes with acceptable spreads.
It saves people's time, money and creates a lot more opportunities for various kinds of investments.
I built Bitcoinica because I wanted a completely revolutionary platform. I have always been trading on Mt. Gox, if I don't need it, I won't start from scratch and build it. Now I trade on Bitcoinica myself. I think it's a good thing and I should share with people, while at the same time I can make small profits to fund my future projects.