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How can you buy those futures as a regular joe? CBOE seems to be aimed at certified traders

Arnt 9y ago
You can't, on purpose. The idea is that there are two kinds of investors: Sophisticated ones who can look out for themselves, and regular joes, who are protected against being ripped off by extra regulations and extra paperwork. Bitcoin futures aren't the kind of product for which anyone will go though those regulations and do that paperwork. Now, how do you become a sophisticated investor? First of all, have a spare million or tow. Next, fill out a quite simple form.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  I can imagine bitcoin will one day become tightly regulated and only available to sophisticated traders; the network only supports 15 transactions per second, limiting who can do trades is one way to deal with it. NYSE can do about 11K a second (based on https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-total-number-of-trades-daily-on-nyse https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-total-number-of-tr...)
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - jstanley 9y ago
    The amount of transactions the bitcoin network can handle is totally unrelated to the amount of trades that can be performed on exchanges.
    - CoryG89 9y ago
      Correct, however, the number of transactions that can be handled does matter when it comes to moving BTC out of or between exchanges.
- gibybo 9y ago
  Interactive Brokers is providing access to the CBOE futures to retail investors. Appears to be long positions only at the moment with high margin requirements, but it's something. Many of the other large retail brokerages said they would offer them pending liquidity/volume thresholds.
lug0r 9y ago
BitMEX is offering BTC Futures since 2014 for joes like me and you. Only caveat: your profits and losses are all realized in bitcoin.
rbcgerard 9y ago
You need to find a futures broker that offers it, and open account with them...
where_do_i_live 9y ago
Looks like TD Ameritrade also has them - I'm getting price data from my app for it at the minimum.

Arnt 9y ago

You can't, on purpose. The idea is that there are two kinds of investors: Sophisticated ones who can look out for themselves, and regular joes, who are protected against being ripped off by extra regulations and extra paperwork. Bitcoin futures aren't the kind of product for which anyone will go though those regulations and do that paperwork. Now, how do you become a sophisticated investor? First of all, have a spare million or tow. Next, fill out a quite simple form.

Cthulhu_ 9y ago
I can imagine bitcoin will one day become tightly regulated and only available to sophisticated traders; the network only supports 15 transactions per second, limiting who can do trades is one way to deal with it. NYSE can do about 11K a second (based on https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-total-number-of-trades-daily-on-nyse https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-total-number-of-tr...)
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jstanley 9y ago
  The amount of transactions the bitcoin network can handle is totally unrelated to the amount of trades that can be performed on exchanges.
  - CoryG89 9y ago
    Correct, however, the number of transactions that can be handled does matter when it comes to moving BTC out of or between exchanges.
gibybo 9y ago
Interactive Brokers is providing access to the CBOE futures to retail investors. Appears to be long positions only at the moment with high margin requirements, but it's something. Many of the other large retail brokerages said they would offer them pending liquidity/volume thresholds.

lug0r 9y ago

BitMEX is offering BTC Futures since 2014 for joes like me and you. Only caveat: your profits and losses are all realized in bitcoin.

rbcgerard 9y ago

You need to find a futures broker that offers it, and open account with them...

where_do_i_live 9y ago

Looks like TD Ameritrade also has them - I'm getting price data from my app for it at the minimum.