"LindeX" - Linden Currency Exchange Begins Public Testing

The LindeX market will be closed until further notice, likely a few hours, as we adjust some of the market mechanisms.

Sweet.

A fun baby step would let people access the "Friends Online" info from an api. I could think of a few cool things to do with that.

I agree that a smaller commision for trades and a larger fee for US$ transfers would be more ideal for both those trading and Linden Labs. The volume of trade will always be higher the smaller the commision for the trade is. The more money changes hands, the faster it gets to a stable price, and the more people are willing to both deposit and withdraw money from the system. If Linden Labs got their commision through withdraw and deposit fees, they may possibly make more as more money comes and goes from the market.

The main thing that should cause Linden Labs hassle in the first place is the money withdrawls and depsoits anyway. The commision fee acts like a tax. People will wait longer to sell if they have to overcome the sell fee, and they will wait longer to buy if they have to overcome the buy fee. The lower this disincentive is the better.

surely this added % cost onto the selling price can just be passed on to the buyer? Because without the seller selling L$, buyers cannot buy L$... unless this system will just be working like LL creating L$ as it's needed?

PLUS...
how do we not know that LL bought over GOM? i don't think any company as popular as GOM would give up the majority of the market just to allow for LindX... anshe or ige didn't leave, so wot good reason was there for GOM to go? perhaps there is more tthe story than we r being told?

Well, without buyers buying...

GOM is closed as of tomorrow, OCT 2nd. LindeX has the advantage of convenience. We'll see how it all works out. (I still expect IGE and Anshe to do fine - different market types.)

Like GOM being bought out, but placed under strict NDA? Maybe so this way it looks like GOM is just leaving, but LL really bought them out, and this entire drama is really just a product of LL so they can look like the good guys and getting a new exchange up and running? Maybe Tom and Jamie aren't really real, they are just Philip and Andrew playing a new role, and then they got tired of it, so they desided to produce all this drama?

The conspiracy could even be worse than you think. What if Phillip and Andrew secretly made a pact with the vile Trolls and evil Gnomes all in the name of destroying the Hippos. How do you know that Tom and Jamie are really not good hearted Hippos. This could be the beginning of the ending of everything. The start of a New World Disorder. The time of reckoning. *Throws hands in the air and runs hysterically in circles*

I don't know if that is necessarily true that smaller spreads and larger fee for USD transfers is ideal for all. It depends on the volume traded by each trader. Larger USD transfer fees with lower spreads is better for larger volume traders, but the opposite is true for low volume traders. SL should really discern between the 2 to maximize trades and revenue. Either setup some sort of tier system like gom or allow ppl to buy large volume trader status which allows smaller spreads. The buying of the status would act like the larger USD transfer fee. Everybody wins, ppl maximize their trades which maximizes SL revenue.

...

In RL this is done by two different markets, for example NASDAQ = OTC and small penny stocks and NYSE = big blue chips and large volume trades.

The market is back up now with changes to the basic buy and sell pages.

Cheers,
Lawrence

Lindex should kill the fee on people who buy with USD in their account.

All the 30 cents does is punishes them and keeps them from providing important liquidity to the market.

Hell, LL will make MORE money by getting rid of that 30 cents because they'll have more 3.5% fees they get to charge.

can we use lindenX is it up for real or is this still testing ?

Why am I having to give my login/password EVERY time I start
to do a buy or sell order? Am I not already logged in??
(very annoying)

Yes, please use it for real... it's really operating.

Think of it as an open beta.... we're actively monitoring everything to watch for problems and tuning things as we go. Thus far there've been no reported instances of loss of L$ or US$, nor did we encounter any such problems during our internal testing. If there is a problem with LindeX that results in a loss of L$ or US$ we'll do everything we can to make things right for the effected parties.

Cheers,
Lawrence

You have to relogin in to complete a buy/sell/cancel. This is intended to help protect so that someone walking by an open browser on your system can't just wander into the currency exchange and start trading. However, I do agree that it's annoying, it certainly bothered me quite a bit when I was doing a lot of trades to test the market.

This is one of the exchange features I most want feedback about. Does anyone feel this feature is worthwhile? If so, should we add it to the other pages with the account settings page, and the land auction pages?

Cheers,
Lawrence

There is a cancel option? I didn't see it. Or is that only if someone has sell orders placed. I wanted to place some sell orders but was worried that if other folks subsequently placed "cheaper" orders for sale below mine, I would be left hanging for a while, so I'm hesitant to place any ATM.

I agree that teirs would help bring liquidity to the market as well. They also have the added bonus of encouraging people to trade more. You are correct that there needs to be a balance with the fees. I don't think commissions should be abolished, but the current commission seems high to me, ecspecially on the buy side. Wasn't one of the points of this this market in the first place to make impulse buying easier to happen. People buying $L250 on impulse are certainly not helped by a US$.30 fee. A fee this large seems to work against the objective of encouraging impulse buys.

Yes.. this is terrible as it is right now.
I make/change several orders close together usually.

I think having AT LEAST 5 min idle time before log out would be good.
GOM had a decent idle-time logout set up. Maybe you should ask if
anyone got burned from that?

I vote to keep it. It's only a small burden for most, and I'm a big fan of security in front of anything even vaguely monitary.

Why don't you just use the "logout" button then, after
you are done with your trade?

That way you get your security, and those that wish to
stay logged in for several trades can do that too.

In the currency section on the left side of the window there is an option named 'transaction history'. I believe that is where the cancel button is.

A few oddities with the buy Lindens... enter 50,000 L$, then tab down and back up, the numbers jump up and down and finally stabalize at 49,995 @ (at this time) $194.93. I know it has to do with rounding, but if I wanted to buy 50,000 L$, I can't cause it keeps rounding it down.

If I enter 50,001, it rounds it UP to 50,003. Weird.

Overall its confusing. There needs to be market info ON the pages where you are buying and selling, not off on some separate page. I don't like the format -- it actually too simplified. Also, buyers should not have a fee. Period. The sellers are the ones profiting, it should come from their pockets. (and I'm a seller and buyer)

And why didn't you just stick with the widely-accepted $L1,000 = $X.XXUSD, instead of this really weird L$/US$1.00? I know what it means, but it's really, well, not unintuitive.

Maybe the more I use it, I don't know.

At first glance, though, I'd say it falls really really short.

Because I wasn't thinking about me.