Right now I see on mtgox the lowest price as 105$ and the last price 165$ but when I want to buy by the price of 105$ I can not do so, the only option is 165$.
Is there something I understand wrongly?
asked Apr 11, 2013 at 1:01
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3 Answers
That was the lowest price in the past day, not the market price.
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3So, that number "low" and 'high' on top of the site is just showing the highest and the lowest price during one particular day. Can you help me to tell where can I find the market price? Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 1:22
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@Ben, what do you mean by "past day"? Do you mean by GMT time, or the past 24 hours?– PacerierCommented Apr 19, 2013 at 6:41
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@makerofthings7 not exactly what he needs to know. If he means to buy bitcoins, for him the last price is irrelevant: what he needs to know is the lowest sell (unless the amount he means to buy is very high).– o0'.Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 9:49
Look at this chart: https://data.mtgox.com/api/0/png/24hours.png?Currency=USD The bars represent the current buying price, and the current selling price.
Right now there's a big difference between the price that you can sell bitcoins at, and the price that you can buy bitcoins at. This is called the spread, and it occurs because people aren't sure how to value bitcoins right now.
answered Apr 11, 2013 at 1:35
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Cool, thank you. I know that it sounds stupid, but I thought that this is a boxplot which summarize statistics about the selling price. Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 1:48
You can only buy Bitcoins at a price if someone is willing to sell them at that price. That a particular price is reported means something, but not necessarily that anyone is willing to sell or buy at that price.
In a healthy market, the buy and sell prices should be almost the same and there should be plenty of people willing to sell or buy at very close to the price at which the last transaction occurred. However, in this particular case, technical problems at Mt Gox caused the market not to be healthy and this general rule did not apply.
In any event, the "low" price just reflects the lowest price at which a trade occurred at a particular exchange in a particular time interval.
answered Apr 11, 2013 at 3:55
