I need help selling L$

A couple of months ago when I sold some lindens (at the SL website) I tried setting the price rather high just to see what would happen. What happened was they sold at that price pretty much instantaneously.

Then, just to see what would happen, I set L$10,000 more to sell at even fewer L$ per US$ - ridiculously fewer actually. What happened was that the L$10,000 disappeared from my account and, not surprisingly, I never got notification that they had sold (Or any US$).

So now I want to change the rate of exchange on that presumably still pending deal so that I can actually conclude it. But I've searched all the links connected to "my account" and buying and selling L$ and nowhere can I find any record that the L$10k ever even existed, let alone a way to edit the terms of the proposed deal.

I'm assuming I'm just not navigating the website properly. I will be so grateful if someone can help me out here.

You should be able to find an entry for it here:

https://secure-web2.secondlife.com/my/lindex/history.php

Below 'Open orders'.

You can't change it, but you can cancel it, and create a new sale.

Bless you Damanios. Thanks so much.

Um...Could you explain to me how I can find it by myself next time? I still can't seem to figure that out.

Ok I can find it again by Googling "Lindex" but shouldn't there be a link at the SL website somewhere?

Go to "My Account" on the main site (click on your name in the top right corner).

Look to the left side for the "Linden Exchange" panel. Click manage on that panel, then "Transaction History".

Even simpler: just give Kitty all your L$s and she'll take care of it for you.

*perks*

I promise to take good care of it too!

And since stocks are so volatile and risky I promise to only invest it in safe things like pretty clothes and shoes and jewelry *looks innocent *.

I never thought of clicking my name at the top right corner. After that I followed your excellent instructions and voila! Thank you, Kitty.



I do like things to be simple...



That is so nice of you. And tempting. But I think I should probably try and learn to take care of it myself.

The open orders on Lindex always leave me gobsmacked.

I've been selling L$ for the past few months - mostly at 258 or 259.
Someone in a hurry was dumping L$ at 260 yesterday, but my experience has been that apart from the rush jobs, the millions on offer at the top of the list is the only pool that sells - as one would expect

I have L$ sitting in the current 259 pool since yesterday. That may sell in a day or so. The L$ on offer at worse buyer rates has little chance of moving.

But .. over on the Buy orders... people are offering to buy millions at 268 and 269.
Huh??

Perhaps somebody started the rot by setting a Buy offer at an optimistic rate.
Then maybe others came in and saw that rate and thought it was achievable.
Or... maybe it's people with a large L$ balance that they don't need to convert to US$ - or a US$ balance they don't want to cash out - and they leave it in crazy orders on Lindex just in case the exchange has a crisis?

I just bought some L$ through SL website itself at 228.52 ... Was that a bad decision?

Is it safer to buy through the SL site itself? Etc etc?

Did you buy L$550?

Remember that there is a 30 cent transaction fee for every L$ buy so if you're buying small amounts a few times in a row you're (relatively) wasting quite a bit.

I.e.: you spend $10 in a month on L$ buys

If you spent it in one buy you'd get L$2522 (transaction cost: $0.30)
If you spent it in 4 separate buys you'd get L$2822 (transaction cost: $1.2)

The default is always for market buys and market sells.

Since LL charges a 3.5% fee on selling L$ the limit buy orders will always be offset by about that amount compared to the limit sell orders and some people take advantage of that.

I.e.:
* you put $1,000 on a limit buy of L$269 and get L$268,919
* you sell those L$268,919 on a limit sell of L$259 and get $1,002

If you can move the money 4 times in a month you have $1,008 by the end of the month or 0.8%.

Compound that "interest" every month and you have a decent annual return, but it all depends on keeping the sell-buy gap wider than 3.5% and how many times you can move everything back and forth in a month.

Perhaps someone who watches the market can put up not-insignificant RL cash and get a relatively low return.

The L$ that I put up at 259 sold after 26 hours.

But... now that I look at the Market Data, I see that although the rate is generally 259/260-ish, there are brief dynamic spikes of 267 and 269.

I've only been looking occasionally at the open Sell offers over a few days leading up to tier date.
I just don't look often enough to catch those magic moments when all that L$ on offer for the usual 258 to 260+-ish has been bought, only 269 offers remain, and people just buy of the website regardless.

Maybe I should try a sell order at 269 and leave it there for up to a month.
That would give me a difference of about US$5 on my usual L$35,000. Every little bit helps.
I should pay more attention

I had the impression you're mixing up limit buys and limit sells with the previous post but wasn't entirely sure, but this seems to mix them up too? Or maybe I'm just reading it wrong

Market orders always you get the - instant - best value out of all outstanding limit orders: for market buys that means all the 260 has to clear out before it gets to 259 which has to clear before it gets to 258 so on downward (assuming no new orders arrive at a better - for the market buyer - rate in which case it jumps back up). For market sells it's the reverse.

I.e. if you're selling L$ then you either do a market sell (which is the default and gets you your US$ instantly and at the *lowest* rate - lowest as in a lower number, not lowest as in worse value - in the *right* column), or you can limit sell - which is what you're doing - in which case you'll tend to pick the *highest* rate in the *left* column to make your decision.

You only care about the *left* column; in my case I only buy L$ and want to get a better rate than what you're selling your L$ at so I pick one lower than the lowest in the *right* column and wait for someone to market sell their L$.

Sorry if this is pointing out the obvious but "when all that L$ on offer for the usual 258 to 260+-ish has been bought, only 269 offers remain" seemed like you got things mixed up. For what you're doing with limit sells 269 would sell before 260 which is the opposite of what you said.

Nope. It's me

Holy Shit!!
I hadn't paid much attention to the buy side.

If I did a market sell of my L$35,000 right now, I would only get a rate of 269 before fees.
I'd be down about US$5 compared to my limit sell at 259 -- just for the sake of not wanting to wait a day.

All those limit buys are simply waiting for market sells.
They'll never match up with the limit sells, which are consumed by market buys.
Being 'the market' sucks! Screwed from both sides.

It's been quite a while since I bought L$, but when I do again, it's going to be a limit buy.


Thank you for helping me to think Sorry for the confusion!

Huh?

Sorry, not a financial trader here.

Just want to spend US$100 "one time" and get the most L$ for my money.

Where should I buy this?

Thanks

Keeping it to Lindex:

If you were to do a market buy right about now -
https://secure-web12.secondlife.com/my/lindex/buy.php
you'd get L$26,000 for US$100.30 immediately.

If you were to set up a limit buy at a rate of 269 and wait a bit,
the L$26,000 would cost you US$96.96

I don't know just how long "a bit" is.
The difference is only 3 to 4 US$, which might not be a big deal for a one-time buy.


There are places other than Lindex where L$ can be bought legitimately.
I have no experience of these.
Maybe someone wiser than I can guide you.

That was for Sling's benefit .

Although the explanation below would make more sense if you understood how the LindeX works and you wouldn't have to operate on blind faith.

The biggest thing to remember is that every time you buy L$ 30 cents gets added as a transaction fee.

For that it doesn't really mean that you have to spend US$100, it simply means that the US$ amount you buy L$ for should be relatively big compared to 30 cents.

Practical example:
- you buy $100 worth of LL in one go so you pay the transaction fee once: $0.30
- you spend the $100 in 4 goes (so $25 each) so you pay it 4 times: $1.20
- you spend the $100 in 10 goes ($10 each) so you pay it 10 times: $3

Whether or not that difference matters to you is your decision. Some people prefer to not how too much L$ at any given time because they feel they'll get too tempted to spend it all at once so in that case it might make sense for them to put up with more "wasted" money in transaction fees by making smaller L$ purchases multiple times.

Did that make sense?

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I'd personally prefer if you got a basic sense of how it works rather than me just giving you a step-by-step though. It's your money after all, and you should know *why* you might want to do things differently from the way you are now. The explanation will be a bit vague, if only not to dump too much on you all at once.

Let's say you're on a veggie market and trying to sell lettuce. If you want to get rid of them ASAP then you'll accept anyone who wants to pay you the current going price for them. But if you wait a bit longer you might get a better price for them. I hope that sort of made sense?

It's the same way when you buy L$:
1) you can do what you likely are doing now which is called a "market buy" which technically means "give me my L$ at the best rate I can get right now this very instant"
2) or you can set a rate at which you want to buy L$ in which case you're waiting for someone selling their L$ in a "give me my US$ at the best rate I can get right now this very instant"

Take a peek at https://secondlife.com/my/lindex/buy.php and scroll down a bit until you see two columns with descending/ascending values.

For practical purposes (and for simplicity's sake) only the very first line of both matters and then only the left column of each.

Let's look at the left one first (I only copy/pasted the left value to keep things a bit simpler):
It represents "limit sells" or in other words: people who placed a sell order stating that they want to get $1 for every L$260 they're selling.

If you buy inside the viewer, or - by default - on the site then that's the column your order will be processed from so in this case if you bought L$ (which is a "market buy" you'd be getting L$260 for every $1.

Looking at the right column:
This is the column that's really the reverse of the other one.

If people want their US$ *now this very instant* they'll do a "market sell" and get $1 for every L$269 they're selling.

You'll notice that the exchange rate is L$9 / US$1 higher than the other rate. There's a reason for that but I think things are probably complicated enough already .

Now: if you really want that extra few L$ per US then what you'd basically do is put a "limit sell" order and then wait for someone who is in a rush (or doesn't know better) to sell so they'll be paying your - worse for them, better for you - rate.

One last thing to remember is that "limit sell" orders are filled from low to high so for every "rush sell" (aka market sell) the lowest number in the right column counts. And per number (exchange rate) the person who first placed an order at that rate is served first.

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Practical steps:
you only have to do this one one time: https://secondlife.com/my/lindex/currency_settings.php and set it to "Advanced" and click "OK"

From "My Account" on the main site, left side of the page, the "Linden Exchange" click "Manage" so the extra options slide out:
1) "Increase Credit" - this will let you deposit US$ onto your account with a $25 minimum
2) Click the "Buy L$" that is *below* "Manage your L$" on the panel which takes you back to the "two column exchange rate" page

You now want "Buy at a Specific Rate (Limit Buy)". Scroll down and look at the "Open Buy Orders" (the column on the rate). The rate you want to "limit buy" for will be L$1 below the lowest rate listed there which is at the time I write this "L$269 / US$1.00".

So in "Exchange Rate in L$ / US$1.00" you fill in: 268
The reason for picking one lower than the lowest is so that your order will be ahead of everyone else's which significantly cuts down on the wait time (otherwise you could be waiting for your L$ for a week until the rest clears out). I tend to get my limit buys filled within 5-10 minutes at the most that way, usually it's near-instant.

Instead of filling in a US$ value you have to type in a L$ value so if you want $100 worth exactly just start with 100 x 268 = 26800 and adjust it until the number below says $100.00 .

Then just click the "Offer to Buy" and go from there.

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Is it worth all the gibberish above? For your $100 worth you'd get L$26719 instead of the L$25922 you'd normally get; or L$797 more (or about 3.5%)

The only one who knows whether or not it's worth all that is you so .

But please, if you want to give it a go, make sure you understood everything I said: this isn't easy so don't worry if something didn't make sense. Just ask and someone will clarify it for you .
Or try it with a relatively small amount of US$ so you're not worrying about what happens if you get it wrong.

Kitty!

Wow! Amazing! Thanks.

Seems like for most things, the savings are pretty slim if you are getting more than US$50 or so.