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Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by beberlei on Monday December 11, 2017 @03:18AM (#15895784)
How can you buy those futures as a regular joe? CBOE seems to be aimed at certified traders
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by Arnt on Monday December 11, 2017 @03:26AM (#15895805)
You can't, on purpose.

The idea is that there are two kinds of investors: Sophisticated ones who can look out for themselves, and regular joes, who are protected against being ripped off by extra regulations and extra paperwork. Bitcoin futures aren't the kind of product for which anyone will go though those regulations and do that paperwork.

Now, how do you become a sophisticated investor? First of all, have a spare million or tow. Next, fill out a quite simple form.

Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by gibybo on Monday December 11, 2017 @03:47AM (#15895870)
Interactive Brokers is providing access to the CBOE futures to retail investors. Appears to be long positions only at the moment with high margin requirements, but it's something.

Many of the other large retail brokerages said they would offer them pending liquidity/volume thresholds.

Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by Cthulhu_ on Monday December 11, 2017 @03:34AM (#15895835)
I can imagine bitcoin will one day become tightly regulated and only available to sophisticated traders; the network only supports 15 transactions per second, limiting who can do trades is one way to deal with it. NYSE can do about 11K a second (based on https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-total-number-of-tr...)
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by jstanley on Monday December 11, 2017 @08:59AM (#15897032)
The amount of transactions the bitcoin network can handle is totally unrelated to the amount of trades that can be performed on exchanges.
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by CoryG89 on Monday December 11, 2017 @01:56PM (#15899317)
Correct, however, the number of transactions that can be handled does matter when it comes to moving BTC out of or between exchanges.
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by lug0r on Monday December 11, 2017 @06:29AM (#15896411)
BitMEX is offering BTC Futures since 2014 for joes like me and you. Only caveat: your profits and losses are all realized in bitcoin.
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by where_do_i_live on Monday December 11, 2017 @09:53AM (#15897296)
Looks like TD Ameritrade also has them - I'm getting price data from my app for it at the minimum.
Re:Bitcoin Futures Start with a Bang as Rally Trips Circuit ... by rbcgerard on Monday December 11, 2017 @08:58AM (#15897029)
You need to find a futures broker that offers it, and open account with them...