Quote from: SuperClam on August 18, 2014, 12:32:35 AM

There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding as to how the CLAM Shell actually functions.

Quote from: Zer0Sum on August 17, 2014, 09:04:58 PM

What happened to the Clam Shell?
A 50% decline even on tiny volume should have rolled out the Clam Shell...
Meaning 100 or 200 size support bids just below the market... like we've seen previously.

The CLAM Shell doesn't "roll out".
It simply exists in the order book as buy orders.

Quote from: Zer0Sum on August 17, 2014, 09:04:58 PM

In fact, the Clam Shell should not be predictable...
It should occasionally sweep the Order Book on the up side for no reason other than flex buying muscle.

There are no upward pushing, "moving" buy orders.
This would cause CLAMS to be purchased at above market price...
For? A pump? Not the purpose.

Quote from: Zer0Sum on August 17, 2014, 09:04:58 PM

Clam Shell buying is also the only way Pool Participants get paid....

Not true. The CLAM Shell is made up of exactly 25% (deposit amount * 0.25) of the pool's proceeds.

I think that would have likely been a superior idea, and was indeed the "original" idea -> why didn't we do it that way?

Quote from: Zer0Sum on August 17, 2014, 09:04:58 PM

And the Pool is not doing well because the payouts are a fraction of any other scrypt pool.

^ This. It is difficult enough maintaining hash @ the pool.
kHashier.com has the longest term payout system in existence.
It makes p2pool look like it was designed for instant gratification - and yet even p2pool receives complaints about the slow build up of payouts.

Crypto is a short-term mind-set community.
That is understandable; we get it.
However, the CLAMS multi-pool will NOT perform well for short-term mining or pool hopping.
It was designed to not perform well over the short-term.

Synopsis:

The pool sells the block reward from mining for BTC, like any other multi-pool.
The resulting BTC, minus fees is accrued at Poloniex in order to purchase CLAMS.
25% of arriving BTC is immediately placed into a Buy order at 75% of the highest current significant buy order.
If the price goes up such that the buy order falls to less than 50% of the highest current significant buy order, it is canceled and placed again at 75% of the highest current significant buy order.
If one of the buy orders is sold into, the resulting purchased CLAMS are periodically withdrawn and paid out to miners during the normal payout cycle.
The remaining 75% of BTC arriving at Poloniex is used to place purchases of CLAMS that are periodically withdrawn and make up the normal payout cycle.
All payouts, (25%)CLAM Shell or (75%)regular, are apportioned to miners in CLAMS based on their accrued percentage.
This includes our fee; which we take in CLAMS.

If you have any additional questions, I am happy to answer them.

I very much appreciate your detailed response

I'm a Pro Trader on the NYSE for 20 years (millions of trades)...
And I'm #3 with about 8% on your Payouts Rankings (view it as a donation)...
Plus I have a mathematical interest in how a multipool can best support a coin's price.

Corporations often set aside billions of $$$ for share buybacks...
With the whole point = boost the share price by retiring shares and shrinking the float...
No one on Wall Street views this as a "pump"...
Because the #1 job of a CEO is to increase the share price for investors...
That's the whole point of capital markets... and Polo is a capital market.

Anyway, a fixed-in-cement algo like yours is very sub-optimal for any purpose...
It really should be a discretionary, creative program managed by an experienced trader.