Something Odd with Currency at SLE

I was just perusing the Buy/Sell Lindens area of SLExchange..owned by you know who.

I found this most fascinating...

Current Rate USD/SLL
Bid/Ask 504.9/266.7
Daily High 505.0
Daily Low 266.7
Daily Volume 52,000

How can any market sustain a nearly 100% fluctuation in just one day?

I mean the difference between getting 505 and 266 is a bit odd ...dont you think?

Who is running this thing> and why is there SUCH a variation.

The NYSE has internal mechanisms that close things down under such volatility. Wonder who got 505 and wonder who got 266?

No wonder Im not selling any Lindens...

From the looks of how they have set up their market, it looks like every once in a while someone foolish comes along and sells for far below market value. Or they just sell a very small amount. But that the vast majority of trades happen closer to the 266 side. The 'volatility' you are seeing is not really as extreme as it might seem, since I'm guessing 95% of the volume is on the 'sell' side (http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Currency&file=orderlist).

Yeah I noticed this too, I started using SLE for the first time a few days ago until today. I'll hold onto what I have til that market looks better, yikes.

Maybe I'm thinking this works differntly then how it really does, but couldn't one person buying/selling 505 make the daily high just that? Its not an average or anything, so it just might be one person acting silly.

YOU are running this thing. (A generic you, as in residents). If you're interested in trading there, why not quote a more competitive bid? It seems that there is opportunity to profit.



-Shaun

Thank you, Shaun.

No problem. I am always happy to contribute a vague economic analysis!

The NYSE is a stock market, not a currency trading market. Very different things altogether. Extreme volatility on the NYSE could cause economic damage to the US and it's trading partners. Volatility on a website that trades game money for $US just doesn't have the same impact. Really, it doesn't. If you disagree, maybe you're spending too much time inworld and need to get outside and see the sky. No, I mean the real sky. Damnit, the one without the giant revolving cubes of plywood....

I was right, there IS profit to be made here! After posting to this thread, I deposited a few L$ and begin trading on the SLEx currency exchange. So far, I have profited L$140 and US$0.01 which doesn't seem like a bad start to me! I think that everyone should use this wonderful market for ALL of their L$ buying, selling and/or trading needs. It seems a lot more like a market to me than the other place, which more closely resembles a classified ad.

Let's all support RESIDENT CREATED AND OPERATED BUSINESSES by supporting the SLEx currency exchange!

The Lindex is simply a place to conveniently buy and sell linden.

It is not a place to day trade.

It is not necessarily a "market" for an "opportunity" to make money.

It is reliable, trustworthy, and it has served its purpose quite well.

That is not to say that there is not currently a void for a "market" type exchange.

But do not expect this "market" to replace the lindex by virtue of the sheer convenience that the lindex offers.

And that is by design.

Sorry if i am off base, but i thought bid was what people were willing to buy for, ask was what people will sell for. So someone said they would buy for 505 but that doesnt mean anyone will sell for that..seems best sell was 267. I was a little confused (maybe still am) but just cause i ask for L at 500 per $ doesnt mean someone will sell to me for that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

As is the SLEx currency exchange.



I agree, the the other place is no place to trade at all. It would be interesting to see how much more liquidity and stability would be available if it WERE a better market though.



Why do you care about my little review of the SLEx currency exchange though? Why so negative towards those who would rather participate in a resident created market than partonize a government classified ad service which is trying to appropriate an entire market sector? Are you a Linden in disguise?

At any rate, if you like the other place better that's cool. I've just been enjoying myself by trading a little L$ over the last couple of days and thought that other land/economy readers may like to know about this great place to buy, sell and/or trade L$, since the topic came up.

Right, exactly. the 505 is just someone making an offer to buy at that rate. Someone still has to take the offer. Well, mostly. SLEx also adds a little spread to the bid/ask quotes on the main page, so they can make a little money too. You can see the actual rates that are being quoted by buyers and sellers, and the amount they want to buy or sell at that rate, by clicking "open orders".

I had a look at the $L = $ section of the website the other day and I have to say it puzzled me a little, together with the comments made in the header post.

By way of background I understand the comments made by the poster commenting on the NYSE. For example to prevent program trading driving the Dow below a 200 point drop in trading day, a mandatory pause is imposed by the Exchange......

I am also very familiar with what is called level 2 stock market information (Please refer to www.advfn.com for a working example)

So therefore my point is the historical data page should be a type of level 2 book, that is Lindon/Et-Al are acting as market makers taking a spread for the service and matching both buyers and sellers who get filled at rising levels selling $L for dollars, and falling levels for buying $L.

Therefore a big fill outside the spread is abnormal to say the least, and could only be a direct result of what the stock market would call a "Protected Trade", in other words a big order to buy or sell outside of average normal market size.

By the way this point is made on the basis I understand this service only matches buyers and sellers, in other words the market maker takes no risk for the trade - unlike the bourse market makers.

Finally I noticed that the historical data page only showed sellers of $L currency (on both the buy and sell tab) With a true market maker book that does not seem right to me as there would be both buyers and sellers of stock

Are we discussing SLEx or LindeX?



You're comparing a simulated forex environment to an RL stock environment. Does RL forex ever pause?



I think I agree. I can't find a historical data page though, only a charts page.



This kind of thing is most probably just a market order. Take a look at the buy orders on the open orders page. You'll see that if someone shows up and decides to sell say... L$2,000,000 at the best price, they'll blast through the entire buy order list without even getting their entire order done. Most of what did get filled would fill WAAAAY outside of the current bid price, some at a rate as bad as L$2000 for $1.00.

It's a small market so things can get wild easily. There used to be a much bigger market before LL introduced LindeX.




I can't seem to find this historical data page.. only a charts page. Could you link to the historical data page?

Are we discussing SLEx or LindeX?................

Being new here I am refering to the service accessed via the main (here) lindon website

You're comparing a simulated forex environment to an RL stock environment. Does RL forex ever pause?........................

RL Forex is what they call 24/5, that is 24 hours a day midnight GMT Sunday to around 9.30pm GMT Friday

I can't seem to find this historical data page.. only a charts page. Could you link to the historical data page?...................

Try here,
https://secondlife.com/currency/buy.php

I only see sell on the buy tab

https://secondlife.com/currency/sell.php

And sell on the sell tab

The rest of your post, it seems we are in broad agreement

Mostly. I have a WHOLE LOT of issues with the current implementation of LindeX too. In my other posts I was referring to the SL Exchange currency market.

You are correct that there are NO buy orders whatsoever on LindeX, only sell orders. One may ONLY sell via a limit order and one may ONLY buy via a market order. This is why I referred to it as more of a classified ad than a market, hehe.

Also, that isn't historical data at all, it's the current sell orders.

Thanks very much for that link......especially charts on $L currency which is looking interesting

http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Currency&file=charts giving volume as well as the rate tells me that on the face of it volume is steady and the rate is getting stronger....but of course as you say it is a thin market, and like penny shares with low volume, can be distorted.

Drop by and see my sometime in sl. I am on GMT time, after next week will mostly be about weekends

Sure, I'd love to chat more in-world. I'll keep an eye out for you.

I wasn't directly refering to your little review, although I can see why you would think I was, and it was not my intent to be negative toward you. Forgive me if i came off as such. I was merely making a general and factual statement. One that you wholeheartedly agreed with btw.

Your statement was transparent in as much as you like to day trade and you would like more people to participate in an effort to encourage a more dynamic and rewarding trading experience.

And there is nothing at all wrong with that

But IMHO, to rally people against the Lindex in an effort to get them to use the SLEx is unecessary. I do believe that both can coexist and there is a market for both if advertised and promoted effectively.

But whatever works for you is fine with me

Hehe it's not about trading with me. I'm not trading with enough money to matter. L$100 is a pretty good profit on my daily SLEx trades. It's just a fun way to kill a few extra minutes here and there. However, I do think it's a better service overall which more people should be informed about so they can evaluate it for their needs. Wouldn't you say that options are important in a free market?

As a LindeX lover, why do you think it is that people would rather take what price they can get on a classified ad than participate in an open market and maybe get some more bang for their buck? I guess visibility and a 1 click purchase do have a lot to be said for them. And wow, are they ever visible now! It was very disapointing to login to the new SL 1.8 and find an L$ button next to my balance which linked straight to LindeX, rather than the old page listing LindeX and ALSO resident operated L$ services/markets.

I thought the Lindex was an open market?

Isn't the Lindex just a platform that matches players who want to buy linden with players that want to sell linden?



Why so dissapointed?

Isnt it providing exactly what its suposed to provide. Convenience?

*Cheers Shaun up

sorta-kinda but:

1. There are no buy orders. If you want L$ and don't like the price, too bad. You aren't allowed to enter a price that you'd be willing to accept. This of course makes the L$ seem more valuable than it really is. You either take the offered price or you don't fully enjoy your second life via the use of the L$ that you desire.

2. There are very large transaction fees.

3. There are very strict CAPS on most peoples' trading limits. If you want to buy or sell more, too bad. This of course keeps the for sale ads from being flooded to represent the true state of the market and thus, like number 1 above, makes the L$ seem more valuable than it really is.

I'm sure that I could think of some more points if I sat and thought about it for a while. In short though, no, it doesn't seem much like an open market to me. It seems more like a classified ad on sterrorids, with very strict yet vague price control mechanisms. It is of course, however, designed to appear to be similar to an open market.

Also, how do we know how much of the L$ being advertised on LindeX belongs to residents and how much belongs to LL?



Within the constraints outlined above, yes.



Dissapointed? Don't get me started.





Thanks, hehe. But I still think that it is important to support resident created and operated businesses whenever possible. I'm really glad that someone started this thread and made me sit down and think about this alternative currency exchange. I had looked at it in the past when it opened, but never really paid too much attention to it.

Ok that does it...

how much are they paying you? .

Nobody's paying me anything. I just saw the thread, tried the currency exchange and liked it. The fees could be a little bit lower, but it really seems like the perfect answer to LL appropriation of resident business, and also the problems that I've listed with the LL run system. Why does someone have to be paying me to have a conversation about a currency market? Do you not discuss great platforms without compensation?