How to short crypto

CrytoCurious wrote:

Is it possible to short bitcoin or other crytocurrencies? How does one go about doing this?

Yes. You won't do it though.

You don't short crypto, crypto shorts you

Easy. Throe away a harddrive and youbwill find yourself short of crypto

CrytoCurious wrote:

Is it possible to short bitcoin or other crytocurrencies? How does one go about doing this?

Sit in bathtub with laptop. Submerge laptop.

Shorting bitcoin (and its like) might be then only idea dumber than buying crypto currency.

You have theoretically unlimited losses when shorting, and calling the top of a bubble is not often easy.

Bio Dome wrote:

Shorting bitcoin (and its like) might be then only idea dumber than buying crypto currency.

You have theoretically unlimited losses when shorting, and calling the top of a bubble is not often easy.

^^ He's right. In the time your initial comment to the time Bio Dome posted his, you would have lost over 7% of your investment had you shorted it, assuming you are talking about bitcoin. But hey, not everyone seems to agree.

CrytoCurious wrote:

Is it possible to short bitcoin or other crytocurrencies? How does one go about doing this?

borrow some coins from a friend. sell them immediately. give him back his coins in 3-4 months.

Step 1: start with a very, very large sum of money that you can afford to lose

Step 2: have your brain surgically removes

Step 3: borrow crypto to the value a very small percentage of that disposable wealth the sell it

Step 4: fake your own death and move to a remote island somewhere

CrytoCurious wrote:

Is it possible to short bitcoin or other crytocurrencies? How does one go about doing this?

If you really want you can short it through the futures contracts just setup at CME and CBOE. However the broker will likely apply a hefty margin in order for you to trade and will give you zero leeway and will liquidate your position if you somehow get a margin call from them. Personally i think that market is just too thin to make any sense trading it, especially on the short side. Plus i cant see anything right now that points to a reversal. You are probably take less risk by buying on dips, if any. Good luck

Ok, so I didn't short it, so I'm not exactly smug about this, but just wanted to point out that shorting it when I started this thread is looking good, now. But I guess that is how the market works, there is always a lot of "man, if I had just..."

To be fair, I think that shorting it right now would be a pretty good idea as well, but I lack the guts to go through with it.

It seems you may be asking how to actually do this mechanistically. The CME is now trading bitcoin futures, in case you were not aware:

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/bitcoin.html

It seems like ICE may be offering as well

https://www.coindesk.com/ice-exchange-unit-seeking-to-list-bitcoin-futures-etf/

this is pretty helpful from the CME:

http://www.cmegroup.com/education/cme-bitcoin-futures-frequently-asked-questions.html

You might consider trading on a virtual basis initially--get a feel for how things move

CrytoCurious wrote:

Ok, so I didn't short it, so I'm not exactly smug about this,

I am smug about this:

go long wrote:

CrytoCurious wrote:

Is it possible to short bitcoin or other crytocurrencies? How does one go about doing this?

Yes. You won't do it though.

CrytoCurious wrote:

but just wanted to point out that shorting it when I started this thread is looking good, now. But I guess that is how the market works, there is always a lot of "man, if I had just..."

To be fair, I think that shorting it right now would be a pretty good idea as well, but I lack the guts to go through with it.

Unless you're already rich, it still was and is a terrible idea. It can be expensive to do a short and even though the price of Bitcoin went down, it might not make up for the other fees you would have had to pay, since whomever you're borrowing Bitcoin from has to take on some risk that you won't be able to pay them back if the price of Bitcoin soars. So no, you shouldn't (and I know you never will) short cryptocurrency.

go long wrote:

CrytoCurious wrote:

Ok, so I didn't short it, so I'm not exactly smug about this,

I am smug about this:

go long wrote:

Yes. You won't do it though.

When I wrote my original post, I didn't understand the infinite risk part of shorting something.