Mtgox is an exchange, so think of your stock broker. You wire your broker/brokerage a pool of your money, and shuffle it around in the brokerage among various a

Mtgox is an exchange, so think of your stock broker. You wire your broker/brokerage a pool of your money, and shuffle it around in the brokerage among various assets. If you like, you can put more in or take some out, but the brokerage generally holds your assets while you are trading.