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Like put and call options for a stock, but for the future price of Bitcoin?

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Additional methods are being developed or available currently with an invitation. When they are available to the public, they will be added here: en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Options – Stephen Gornick Jan 31 at 2:36
en.bitcoin.it/wiki/History#2010 ctrl-f 'option' – Nick ODell Jan 31 at 23:38

4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

It's possible in theory, but right now there are no good markets to actually do it. The only one I know is MPEX which has multiple problems and should be avoided.

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I found MPEX too, but thought it was not really usable... – B Seven Jan 28 at 23:20
Why should it be avoided ? – David Feb 1 at 6:50
1  
@David: 1. It costs 30 BTC just to get an account. 2. Even if you paid the 30 BTC your account can be arbitrarily deleted at the owner's whim, effectively stealing your fees (bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131061.0). 3. The current spreads for options make them impractical, and the automated offerings don't seem to have adapted to current rates. 4. The owner is an obnoxious troll. 5. The owner is an alleged scammer (bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=129544.0.) – Meni Rosenfeld Feb 1 at 7:32
1) Something not being free does not make it bad. 2) Inactive accounts get pruned with a two months notice, and to keep your account active you just need to leave a Satoshi in there, not a big deal I'd say. 3) It still addresses OPs need even if the spread isn't that good. 4) I don't usually judge the solidity of a financial service on the "niceness" of its operators, Pirate and all the scammers were all nice people apparently, did it make them honest ? No 5) The important part of your statement is "alleged", read the thread, there's nothing. Your answer is predjudiced and not backed by facts. – David Feb 1 at 17:29
Continued in chat - chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/7358/… – Meni Rosenfeld Feb 2 at 17:00
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up vote 0 down vote

MPEx is fine, it offers options.

Accounts there are expensive (30 BTC IIRC) but there are third-party brokers that will let you avoid these fees by offering a different fee structure.

If you want to deal with MPEx directly you should have some knowledge about PGP as its security architecture is based on it and requires to be able to clearsign orders.

It doesn't have any specific issues that I know of (except for the opinionated PR perhaps).

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-1 for all the reasons @Meni explained. – Lohoris Feb 1 at 17:20
Meni Rosenfeld's opinion is quite irrelevant here, MPEx allows the purchase and sale of options, which is precisely the question that is being asked. – David Feb 1 at 17:24
If the suggested site has a questionable reputation, it is totally relevant! – Lohoris Feb 1 at 17:26
Look at the facts, not the opinions and hearsay, why do you think SatoshiDice chose it for its IPO? – David Feb 1 at 17:31
There's plenty of facts in the posted links. – Lohoris Feb 1 at 17:36
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up vote 0 down vote

I found one site that does this and looks good:

https://icbit.se/

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I don't think options are traded there. What I know is that it trades futures which are equivalent to margin trading. – Meni Rosenfeld Jan 31 at 20:51
You're right. It is not options. It is futures. – B Seven Jan 31 at 21:25
up vote 0 down vote

Most of the answers on Bitcoin SE that relate to financial services (options, dark pools etc) are really quite uninformed. I know techies like to sound intelligent and often are. But they should stick to subjects they know about. There are now quite a few ways to hedge the price of BTC. One way is with IG Markets binary options. There are also CFDs (contracts for difference) at several providers. As for "dark pools" this concept is impossible on BTC since every 10 minutes all transactions are broadcast.

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