
Launch of Bitcoin futures trading crashes CBOE site - MilnerRoute
https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/12/10/2315254/launch-of-bitcoin-futures-trading-crashes-cboe-site
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shit-show
All your resources needed for today:

CBOE Chart Updates: [http://www.cboe.com/delayedquote/advanced-
charts?ticker=XBT%...](http://www.cboe.com/delayedquote/advanced-
charts?ticker=XBT%2fF8)

CBOE XBT - Bitcoin (USD) Futures Table:
[http://www.cboe.com/delayedquote/futures-
quotes](http://www.cboe.com/delayedquote/futures-quotes)

Cryptonaire live forecast updates:
[https://cryptonaire.com](https://cryptonaire.com)

Bloomberg Live Coverage:
[https://www.bloomberg.com/live/us](https://www.bloomberg.com/live/us)

CMC for BTC indexing including non-US pairs:
[https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#markets](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#markets)

WCI for BTC indexing only US pairs:
[https://www.worldcoinindex.com/coin/bitcoin](https://www.worldcoinindex.com/coin/bitcoin)

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somid3
Can someone explain how the bid/ask and data for futures can be interpreted?
Sorry futures noob here.

~~~
philipwhiuk
First:

A future is a contract to buy or sell something at a set price.

So for example a Crude Oil Jan 1st buy future requires that you buy Crude Oil
at a set price on January 1st.

Now, if you want to own crude oil on January 1st, you buy a future locking in
a price.

This means the cost of your crude oil is predictable ahead of time.

It also means if crude oil is more expensive then you save money. But if it's
cheaper you've lost out.

Businesses benefit a lot from predictable pricing - for example if you're a
farmer you can sell grain futures at a set price. Then you know that your
grain will get you an amount of money - guaranteeing incoming.

This is the mainstay of what CBOE and CME does.

Bitcoin is a cash-settled future. So instead of actually owning a bitcoin, the
way it's settled is based on the market price of bitcoin at the time.

So I put a bid in for a 1 week Bitcoin future at $20,000. I'm matched with a
seller for a 1 week Bitcoin future asking for $20,000.

After a week the price for Bitcoin is checked. It's actually $21,000. The
seller has to pay me $1,000.

In reality no-one is going to be doing 1 week BTC initially - BTC is just too
volatile.

The exchange rules on CME are apparently if BTC rises/falls more than 7%
trading stops. (So on the volatile days last week it would have stopped
multiple times in the same day!). 7% is really high for a normal financial
instrument - but BTC is very very volatile.

