My first currency trade on SLExchange - Oh Dear

I cannot believe what happened to me earlier today. Still a bit puzzled by exactly where the L$6 "spread" was applied (ie to what numbers), having seen a buy offer in the list at 2YY.Y, I thought I would test the result by starting a trade at "the best price I can get immediately". I clicked on this, expecting to be told the rate, and asked to confirm.

Not a bit of it. I was asked to confirm, but with no mention of the price.
Not only was the trade then done (I did confirm to find out what would happen), but I wasn't even then told what price it had been done at. I was merely told my trade had been successful.

I was then shown a summary line containing everything but the amount of the proceeds, or the rate.

I had to dig around diligently before finally discovering it had occurred at 2XX.X., L$6 higher than the buy order at 2YY.Y

The idea that you do a trade without being told the rate before you commit, or even shown it when done, is truly bizarre. Obviously we need a timeout here, as others may be waiting to trade, but no price at all ? Or how about "The rate will be XXX.X. You have 5 seconds to click the "cancel" button" ?

I see on the chart some very strange trades today, 273/280 for instance. What is going on ? Are some people even more confused than me, and get caught even deeper in this "blind rate" trap, where they don't get shown the rate until it's too late (and not even then ?)? I guess everybody only does it once.

I'm sure there is no evil intention here, but this interface really needs a lot of work.

So be warned. On an instant sale you get no warning of the rate, no chance to withdraw when you see it. No indication of what it has been. On a delayed sale you really need to understand the "spread" system. Look at the open orders, how far apart they are. They actually need an OVERLAP of 6 before a match occurs. Does it look as though the users understand this ?

I suggest that the confirmations need to be cleaned up.

I also suggest that all rates should have a "Lindex equivalent" rate displayed next to them, so that we don't have to mentally calculate 3.5%, apply it in the correct direction, and then compare it with a price increased or decreased by 6.

Jeepers, its a minefield. I give up.

You may want to bring this up on their forums as well, where it will most likely be seen and fixed. Hopefully it was just a browser bug.

That's because in a true open market it is impossible to confirm price before the trade actually happens with any reliability, especially with a market order like you entered. We can make it so an estimate is displayed, but it will only be an estimate and not a true quote. This is what LindeX does and if there is demand for it we can do the same thing.


Your transaction history shows the price as well as your account funds history (example: Filled 5000.00SLL at 262.00). The only page that doesn't display the fill rate is the My Orders page, which by default displays a current snapshot of your recently-submitted orders. The total price of a particular fill is visible in your account funds history which is easily accessed by clicking your balance in the My SLX box.


So what information do we display when? Is the near-universal practice of displaying current order status after submitting an order (used by every single currency and stock trading service I've ever encountered) counter-intuitive? Do all the trading sites in the world have it wrong? (I'm not being sarcastic or cynical... I am asking honestly. Maybe they [and we] do all have it wrong.) Would it make more sense to display the order history after a market order is placed (since it is likely that it will be filled immediately) and order status after a limit order is placed (since it is likely that it will not be filled immediately)?


Again this is because it is a true open market where reliable quotes are technically impossible (data can change at any time). Creating a system of holds and checks and balances just to provide a reliable quote is a) not fair to other users and b) impractical for scalability. If you want an accurate quote for your trade, feel free to use our older Buy/Sell L$ pages. The alternative of course is displaying an estimate as mentioned above.


This is happening because the buy/sell ratios are uneven currently (this is easily visible using the daily high-low-close charts) and the few large traders that are using the system are not filling in the gaps (nor should they if they choose not to). When the buy/sell difference gets large, there is a great opportunity for people to make a lot of money day-trading, but so far it seems only one or two people have figured that out.



Apparently you are right. I would like to encourage you or anyone else with interface suggestions to please post in our Feature Suggestions forum.


I completely agree that there is a learning curve and we are trying to make it easier to understand. Perhaps we will come up with something over the long weekend ahead that will help people. For the most part so far it seems to be that people need to understand that the Bid/Ask display is a market rate quote and the Open Orders display contains the actual orders in the system and does not reflect quoted rates.


I agree that anything we can do to display better information at better times will help. Specific suggestions are always welcome.


Thank you for your honest opinions. We haven't had enough people tell us about their experiences yet and this type of input really helps a lot.

Your welcome. You're a gent.
We need an alternate exchange or two. I wanna see it succeed.

Just wanted to say I have used the currancy exchange and its just like any RL exchange I have used. If I offer to sell at market, I agree to take what the market offers! If you need a rate, then there are buy/sell limits you can set just like a limit order on any real market.

I have only used it a few times, but I have to works great!