Why do so many people use btc-e? When I looked at it, it looked so shady and like most things were not written in correct English, and I understood they are located in Russia or something. How could you trust them any more than you trusted Gox? My, I swear, if a solid exchange came along it could dominate the market.
They are located in Bulgaria, I believe. People use them because all the exchanges are shady, but BTC-E has by far the best trading engine/least lag. And they have been around forever, paid out when they were hacked, covered liquidity losses during margin call cascade. They are the most honorable exchange, hands down.