Here's my question for Bitcoinica
Hypothetical: the majority (let's say 90%) of bitcoinica users are long in the market (buying) and are leveraged close to the max (let's say 4 to 1).
From where do the currency funds come to fill those leveraged orders?
Same hypothetical question for large HEAVILY LEVERAGED sell orders that come from the majority of bitcoinica members?
Could you clarify that you do indeed have deep pockets with lots of money and bitcoins to fund these scenarios?
If you don't, then what mechanisms are in place so the market can't leverage past the point of no more funds?
If there are no mechanism and limited funds then the only other option would be for a fractional reserve exchange,
in that case it would be an ethical choice to clarify it to your users.
What does this mean for bitcoinica's users if there are no mechanisms and limited funds?
It means that at some point the leveraged buys or sells do no influence the market the same as a 1:1 buy or sell.
Leveraged buys and sells would merely be "placing your bets" on what way the market will go without really participating.
I would really appreciate if you could address all this.
We can be a half bucket shop and half brokerage, but obviously that's not the right way.
Either way will result in criticisms, but I did the best I can do, and the right thing.
Why did you repost this exchange without actually responding to the questions? Everyone always claims to do their best and to have done the "right thing". Claiming best effort doesn't establish the adequacy of effort in the eyes of others, and whatever you may have meant by the "right thing" remains completely undefined. For example, not getting your nuts cut off as a warning from a loan shark could be very right for you, but the outcome one way or the other might be of little interest to anyone else.
Are you running any of this by your lawyer before you publish it? You might at least get some guidance in avoiding inadvertently digging your operation even deeper into a credibility hole than it already is.
You must be new here.
True. So far it's just like driving by a serious auto accident, as you approach you can see from the rising smoke and flames that the carnage must be terrible, but you still end up taking a good long look as you pass by. In this case it's not so bad, as it's only another flaming clown car in the internet circus.
It will be interesting to see the total number of responses to the poll question once a day or so has passed. Was bitcoin a bigger deal a few months back? So far it looks like it is going the "death by a thousand idiots" route, only that thousand is probably more like a few dozens, tops.
Some of the press coverage creates the impression that bitcoin aspires to be some kind of serious alternative or business vehicle. To date the best business idea I've run across on this forum is bringing Mexican style kidnapping for profit to the U.S., and you sure don't need bitcoins to pursue that.