Bitcoin trading

[Pneumo]

Bitcoin is a 247 market, all the crypto exchanges do not close. 

 

By not being able to trade over the weekend is a huge disadvantage. 

[RobertR]

Hi , thanks for your post.

 

You're absolutely right that Bitcoin is a 24/7 market. The restriction in trading is due to all trading being closed with IG from 10pm on Friday until 8am on Sunday.

 

The Bitcoin market will reopen for Sunday trading, so for this reason we do offer it for as long as currently possible. I do appreciate that the gap between Friday night and Sunday morning does pose the risk of the market moving, however in order for us to offer the product on our leveraged platform, it requires the full dealing staff to be available.

 

I'll of course pass this on as feedback to them, but apologise for any inconvenience in the meantime.

 

Thanks,

Rob

[Pneumo]

Thanks for your reply ,

 

Currently, the bitcoin markets are unavailable to me because the mini contract values are very high. Because the price has gone up a lot with this market it has increased the requirements to participate. At what point will the minimum size per point be reduced?

 

On the Bitcoin product details page, it shows the minimum price per point available is £0.1, €0.1 and $0.1. However, these options are not available, the minimum spread available in the markets is €0.12 & $0.13. How do I find the lower size options?

 

Thanks,

Pneumo

[RobertR]

Hi , thanks for your reply

Our minimum spread bet deal sizes are indeed £0.1, €0.1 and $0.1, and you'll be able to enter a trade using a deal ticket with these sizes - are you receiving an error when you try to do so?

The spread is separate to the minimum sizes, and depends heavily on the underlying market spreads.  We will always offer our tightest spreads where possible, but should the market prices widen, we'll need to reflect this too.

Please let me know if I can help further!

[giutor]

Hey Robert,

 

I attached screenshot of the spread betting ticket, it says 5pt minimum. Can you please clarify?

 

Thanks.

giutor

[RobertR]

Hi ,

 

Since my last post we've actually made some changes to the pricing of Bitcoin.

 

As you'll see from your deal ticket, we've scaled the price down by a factor of 100, meaning that a price of 293940 is now 2939.4. Because of this we also reviewed the minimum trade size, which is now $/£5 per point. In the previous pricing, this would have been the equivalent trade size of $/£0.05 per point, so they've both been scales by the same proportions.

 

The reason for this change is simply because Bitcoin has gone up so significantly in price since we started to offer it, and its volatility is such that the trade sizes needed reducing by a certain fraction.

 

I hope this answers your question!

 

Thanks,

 

Rob

[superkruger]

Any idea why I'm not able to trade Ether or Bitcoin?

 

[Tony0524]

IG only allow investors to open short position when the market is going up.
They said it was too risky of you (or for them?I guess) Just deal with it. 

[superkruger]

Well, it was a buy order, but anyway... Dealing with it I suppose...

[JamesIG]

Quote from

here

Hi everyone - I just wanted to let you all know that over the last few days I have been collating this feedback and will be passing it on to the FX & crypto dealing desk, and to senior management. I understand how frustrating it can be to get rejected on a trade and I want to reassure you that we always try and reduce the likelihood of any rejection across our deal execution service. It's in our interest not only from a financial perspective (IG generates revenue based on dealing spread and commissions which obviously requires a successful execution), but also from a customer service perspective.

 

For those who are unaware, let me explain how our cryptocurrency offering works on the back end so you have a clearer understanding of why bitcoin and ether are sometimes 'unlongable' or 'unborrowable'. This has been posted elsewhere on the IG Community, so you may have already read it but I thought it may be useful for people in this thread.

 

When you open a long position on the trading platform that trade feeds into IG's total global exposure for that asset. We do not run a speculative position on any market including bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies. This is important for a number of reasons. First it means that we never have a view of where a market is trading or the direction in which it is trading. It is never in our interest for a stop or limit to be triggered incorrectly, and it is only important that the market actually trades at those levels and that the best execution is met every time basis your stops / limits / orders. We do not reject trades based on the market’s direction, but rather on whether or not our internal limits are met. Secondly, it means that as a company if there is ever a large market move in any one direction, IG will be flat and continue to be able to offer services to our clients. This business model has allowed IG to become a leader in spread betting and CFD trading.

 

 

When there is an overwhelming sentiment on any one asset type in a single direction, IG’s global exposure will move to our maximum risk levels one way or the other. With bitcoin and ether it's common to see a strong speculation in one direction. We can therefore become max long or max short more often than in other markets, and this causes that specific asset to be restricted from trading until we see more buyers or sellers in the market. We have internal limits on many tradable instruments however the liquidity for these are far greater. There are also some unique risks for crypto currencies specifically which need to be taken into account (for example the risk of holding 'x' amount of bitcoin in a wallet).

 

 

I appreciate that this can be frustrating, however it does mean that we can continue to offer leveraged trading on cryptocurrency. We do need to have these limits in place so that our risk levels are kept proportionally adequate to the underlying risk of cryptocurrencies in general.

 

I hope the above clarifies things, and let me just reiterate that all sentiment will be passed onto the relevant parties. We continue to review, refine and improve all offerings at IG, from platforms to deal execution, and we shall continue to do this for our crypto offering.

---

 

Hi all - thanks for your feedback on bitcoin and our crypto markets. Let me just direct you to the above quoted message which I posted on another thread which explains the issues you are having. I appreciate how frustrating it can be, but please be assured that I am passing all comments and feedback back to senior management and the dealing desk. Thanks.