4 ms·

If HN wants to put its money where its mouth is regarding ICOs, right now would be a great time to short.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mikestew 9y ago
See what it does on market open. Don't be the pioneer, wait until the path is clear. IOW, if it opens higher and keeps going up, being the contrarian that shorts it only works for those with pockets far deeper than yours. Wait until it starts to go down a bit, and keeps going down. That's what I'll be doing, anyway. But the more likely scenario is that the market wakes up and asks, "what the hell did we just do?", a bunch of sell orders stack up before the open, and it just opens down and stays there. So the good time to short might have been today, but great googly moogly that would an awfully risky trade. Something something irrational markets and solvency. I don't know if you were trying to point out some assumed hypocrisy or not, but the summary is that at least one person on HN is looking at the possibility of shorting Kodak.
AlexCoventry 9y ago
Never short a rising asset unless you have specific, private, derogatory information. Puts, maybe.
prostoalex 9y ago
How? You're taking a concept from the world of finance that's highly regulated, and applying it to a field that's a complete wild West. To execute a proper short one needs: * to borrow shares from a counter-party that has them, as verified by their broker * to agree on collateral that your brokerage has verified and ensured is not pledged for anything else, agree on the interest rate you'll be paying to borrow those shares, agree on collateral to support those interest payments for the duration of the short * a regulated exchange that frowns upon self-trading and wash trading * an exchange with decent enough activity that a few whales don't control the entire supply/demand, moving the needle into whatever direction they feel like All of those activities are more or less automated in the world of NYSE/Nasdaq, but what's a good broker and exchange that support all of this with the tokens?
- JetSetWilly 9y ago
  All you have to do in this case is short Kodak though. Their price increase is a helpful proxy for crytpocurrency enthusiasm, in the regulated arena you mention. You don't have to short a currency directly.
  - mikestew 9y ago
    Or buy April puts at a $5 strike price for $1, which I did this morning. Corpse of a company goes from $3 to $10 overnight? Should be a no-brainer. We’ll see come April. :-)
    - gallerdude 9y ago
      I’m setting a reminder, best of luck to you!
      - mikestew 9y ago
        It was briefly up to almost $13 after I bought the contracts. sigh, silly irrational markets. But April is a long way off, and they have an earnings report before then. Check back on options expiration in April!

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

See what it does on market open. Don't be the pioneer, wait until the path is clear. IOW, if it opens higher and keeps going up, being the contrarian that shorts it only works for those with pockets far deeper than yours. Wait until it starts to go down a bit, and keeps going down. That's what I'll be doing, anyway. But the more likely scenario is that the market wakes up and asks, "what the hell did we just do?", a bunch of sell orders stack up before the open, and it just opens down and stays there. So the good time to short might have been today, but great googly moogly that would an awfully risky trade. Something something irrational markets and solvency. I don't know if you were trying to point out some assumed hypocrisy or not, but the summary is that at least one person on HN is looking at the possibility of shorting Kodak.

AlexCoventry 9y ago

Never short a rising asset unless you have specific, private, derogatory information. Puts, maybe.

prostoalex 9y ago

How? You're taking a concept from the world of finance that's highly regulated, and applying it to a field that's a complete wild West. To execute a proper short one needs: * to borrow shares from a counter-party that has them, as verified by their broker * to agree on collateral that your brokerage has verified and ensured is not pledged for anything else, agree on the interest rate you'll be paying to borrow those shares, agree on collateral to support those interest payments for the duration of the short * a regulated exchange that frowns upon self-trading and wash trading * an exchange with decent enough activity that a few whales don't control the entire supply/demand, moving the needle into whatever direction they feel like All of those activities are more or less automated in the world of NYSE/Nasdaq, but what's a good broker and exchange that support all of this with the tokens?

JetSetWilly 9y ago
All you have to do in this case is short Kodak though. Their price increase is a helpful proxy for crytpocurrency enthusiasm, in the regulated arena you mention. You don't have to short a currency directly.
- mikestew 9y ago
  Or buy April puts at a $5 strike price for $1, which I did this morning. Corpse of a company goes from $3 to $10 overnight? Should be a no-brainer. We’ll see come April. :-)
  - gallerdude 9y ago
    I’m setting a reminder, best of luck to you!
    - mikestew 9y ago
      It was briefly up to almost $13 after I bought the contracts. sigh, silly irrational markets. But April is a long way off, and they have an earnings report before then. Check back on options expiration in April!