Certain exchanges in finance: whether legacy markets like FOREX and stocks, or cryptocurrency markets like bitcoin and litecoin, offer a fee structure called the maker/taker model. It's pretty simple how it works:
|
This was originally posted this on reddit and I acquired the rights to it, which now links here. Full rights to Bitcoin Futures Blog contact owner if any questions.  OKCoin.cn has been under attack during this bitcoin price bull-run. As the weekend rolls around and we know volatility can get heavy, the possibility of an attack on OKCoin.com servers which would disrupt the Futures market seems ever higher. Luckily, you can access the trading engine directly using OKCoin's WeChat account. The guys at OKCoin have recently taken the effort to translate and explain in English how their WeChat order system works. However, I feel like it is lacking a bit in walking through how to execute the orders, so this is for those who are still struggling to get going with OKCoin WeChat order execution. Background This system was put into place because OKCoin has had problems with DDoS attacks in the past, which has left their webservers unable to process orders, either through RESTAPI/WebSocket, or the website, leaving users stranded in positions they cant get out of, or missing opportunities they would have gotten into. WeChat is China's biggest messaging service. Their servers' capacity massive, and the resources it would take to attack WeChat for the purpose of disturbing OKCoin are prohibitive in magnitude, making disruption of this unlikely. So OKCoin set up an order execution system for their Futures Exchange using WeChat to link to their trading engine. This allows users to smoothly execute orders even if okcoin.com webservers are totally smashed, as long as their trading engine is still intact and communicating with WeChat.
Install WeChat on your mobile phone WeChat is a mobile app connected to your mobile number, which is connected to your OKCoin account. So when the OKCoin WeChat receives messages from you in a particular format, it will know your WeChat id is connected to your account and process them as order requests as long as you have enabled WeChat Trading under “Security” in the account. Start trading through WeChat Once you have added the user “okcoin” in your WeChat app (which, by the way, can be accessed through the web on your computer if you dont feel like typing into your phone), you're ready to execute orders. It may be intimidating that the OKCoin account in WeChat is in Chinese, but don't worry, all code is in English underneath, so the execution is using English as well. The commands are sent just as if you were sending a normal message to someone on WeChat, except you'll be sending it to OKCoin and in a particular format so it knows you're issuing commands. The indicative format is as such (dont use this format, its only descriptive): <Bitcoin/Litecoin>,<Weekly/Biweekly/Quarterly>,<Open/Close>,<Long/Short>,<Price>,<Number Contracts>,<Leverage Amount>(Optional, only if Fixed Margin) In parametric form -- remember the order of the command is very important, and this is how you will be sending the commands: <B/L>,<W/N/Q>,<O/C>,<L/S>,<Order Price>,<Integer>,<10x/20x>(only if in fixed margin) When you send, it will be without the <>'s brackets. The different options for each parameter are separated by the slashes, and the commas separate the arguments and must be included in the command EXAMPLES Let's look at a couple of examples so you can get the idea: Say I'm in fixed margin and I want to go long 1 contract of Bitcoin futures at 20x with a price of 275 on the BiWeekly contracts, then all you have to do is send a message to the OKCoin WeChat account with:
 Try a small example for yourself as a test, just 1 contract, while your web client is open so you can see just how fast the order executes. Now let's look at an example of closing the position. Very simple, just click the keyboard, in the message with okcoin, enter the format for execution, and send the message to complete, just like in this image:
 One final example now, let's mix it up and say you're using Cross Margin and trading Litecoin futures instead, on Quarterlies, and you want to open a short at 3.5 for 100 contracts, then just send:
Note since it's cross-margin it is not necessary to include 10x or 20x. And after sending you you will be executed on the trade. Additional commands In addition to the order execution commands, you can also check Price by just sending “P” to OKCoin. You can also cancel all your orders by sending “C”. Concluding remarks The responses to your commands will be in Chinese. But you can actually translate them on the fly within WeChat. Also, you will get used to what responses are errors and which are success. So as long as you have the account balance to cover it and you dont make a typo, it will execute correctly. You will likely only use WeChat execution in times of stress (i.e., you can't execute in Web UI or over API and use WeChat as last resort). Thus I highly recommend you practice using this system so that when the time comes you are not scrambling to figure out the format. It's simple enough that it just takes a half hour or so of your time to get acquainted with, and could save you lots of money in the future. I hope this clarifies what is confusing for some people who could not quite get into doing it just based on OKCoin's blog post. Feel free to leave questions or if anything needs clarifying or if something I have written here is wrong. A question I get a lot from people is: there are so many bitcoin exchanges out there, which ones matter in terms of leading price changes?
The short answer is: China. The long answer is, well, it's complicated. After the bubble up to over 1,000 in 2013 which was largely caused by Chinese adoption (not Mt Gox fake volume as you may hear from others), the Chinese exchanges have played a central role in price movements.
The USD exchanges have a useful index from Tradeblock called the XBX Index, a proprietary weighting of the major exchanges based not just on last price but on orderbook thickness and other components. Watching the CNY markets is essential if you are going to be daytrading bitcoin, but the USD exchanges are gaining influence. 2015 has been a remarkable year compared to 2014 in terms of services available. And 2014 was amazing compared to 2013, which was amazing compared to 2012. You get the point. The future is bright for bitcoin services. You may encounter a lot of new lingo and terminology when you begin to learn about Bitcoin futures or markets trading in general. If you have previous experience in stock trading, the culture and attitudes are very similar. The charting terminology is mostly the same too. There are, however, some unique characteristics of the bitcoin community which make bitcoin traders a unique breed. Here is a little guide to some of the words you will come across and be puzzled about:
FOMO: noun, adjective, verb. Fear Of Missing Out. This describes the psychology of many traders who see price move in a certain direction and are overcome with a feeling of missing out, which compels them to "FOMO LONG" or "FOMO SHORT", or even sometimes "FOMO ALL-IN". Hodl: These are the bagholders of bitcoin. Those who choose to persistently hold coins despite market volatility. They refuse to sell when it's obvious to sell. They refuse to capitulate! Hodl! Hopium: That lovely feeling that the price will just keep going up and up and up. Permabulls often overdose on hopium and get rekt. Rekt: When your position is going against you. Margin called. Liquidated. Losses stacking up. Hope slowly draining away. Volumyzer: The Chinese exchanges are well known to manipulate volume, using their 0% fee model which encourages wash trading. In times of relative market calm, traders can see large volume bars erecting on Houbi and OKCoin, indicating severe shenanigans at play. |
Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
Search blog |
RSS Feed
