My followup questions in green below.

Quote from: kisa on November 03, 2014, 05:31:16 pm

Let me try some of it... And if I am wrong in my explanations, than I am happy to learn from further corrections....

The challenge for publishing the feed arises when commodity exchanges are shut, such as weekends and holiday... At some point when enough traders are involved in bitGLD, then during weekends either the peg is held constant at Friday closing price at delegates choice, or perhaps the "market price" of bitGLD in BTSX would substitute the peg?
Right. That's important to truly become decentralized. The "feed" in this case would presumably need to be determined from info obtained directly from the blockchain so as to aggregate all offers on the broadest scale since the "official" exchanges closed. - or maybe delegates can find gold prices in jewelry online shops on weekends - with regards to blockchain its rather your tech expertise that is required

correct. just note that here we are dealing with shorts versus BTS, e.g. issuing bitUSD via short would make you some BTS profit if bitUSD value in BTS declines (= BTS value in USD increases), and buying bitUSD long would make you some BTS profit if bitUSD value in BTS increases (= BTS value in USD decreases)
A bit confused here. Why involve BitUSD if I want to short BTSX? Can't one short BitUSD and BTSX independent of one another? you want to short BTSX versus what? buying an asset (long) involves paying the price in some other asset, e.g. if you are long 1 Oz Gold, you have to pay 1170$. Now, shorting Gold means selling 1 Oz Gold that you don't own (but perhaps borrowed with the promise to return next month) for 1170$. You need some currency to short/sell Gold for So in BitShares, if you want to short bitUSD then against BTS. if you want to short BTS - then against bitUSD - this is actually performed by buying bitUSD with your existing BTS. If, however, you want to short bitUSD versus bitCNY, this might be possible directly one day. But for now, you would have to short bitUSD versus BTS, and then buy bitCNY with BTS proceeds you received

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I was further confused by not understanding what a price feed is, how the delegates set it, on what basis they do so and whether it's individually set by each delegate or some sort of cooperation or consensus is at play.

The whole topic of price feeds is now clear in my mind. Thanks!

1) you buy bitUSD for whatever token an external exchange is trading it, such as BTC.
Thought so, got it.
2) yes, for BTS
Was hoping so. Will this change after new BTS client is released? i.e. could other tokens be used? you mean like buying bitGLD for bitUSD within Bitshares? not sure really what the plan is...
3) no collateral needed - you simply pay current market BTS price for it (speculative, if you want), then you own bitUSD and your asset can lose or increase the amount of BTS it is worth in the future
Kewl.
4) going long bitUSD is the same a buying bitUSD. For going short - yes you need to post (2xmarket value) collateral.
Might not understand details of how this is done, but I think good enough answer for now. Followup Q: Is BitUSD always involved for ALL "long" contracts done in the BitShares client? Will that change with new client?

not sure I understand your question. in BitShares client you can have some amount of BTS (long BTS), and you can buy whatever bitAssets are available on the market (long bitAssets), or you can create more/new bitAssets (short bitAssets), whereby BitShares freezes your required BTS collateral. The buyer of bitUSD can do with it whatever they want - nothing, paying for something, selling for BTC on bter, selling for BTS on Bitshares etc.). The seller has to cover their short position within 30 days (meaning he has to buy the amount of bitUSD he shorted from someone else -maybe a new issuer - on BitShares for BTS within 30 days).

Normally I'd post this in the newbie section but there isn't many eyes over there lately.

I'm trying to dig into the concept of BitAssets and really understand them. About the only thing about them I believe I do understand is the psychological basis for why a BitAsset like BitUSD trades near $1. I don't see how that holds true for other assets like gold, silver & oil where the consensus value is more volatile.
The peg for bitAssets depends on the bitAsset price in terms of BTS. Because we know from exchanges, that BTS is now trading at, lets say 0.016$, this enables the delegates to publish feed -> 62,5 BTS per bitUSD. If the $ price of 1 Oz gold is known at any time on major world commodity exchanges, then the delegates also know of how much BTS per bitGLD. The challenge for publishing the feed arises when commodity exchanges are shut, such as weekends and holiday... At some point when enough traders are involved in bitGLD, then during weekends either the peg is held constant at Friday closing price at delegates choice, or perhaps the "market price" of bitGLD in BTSX would substitute the peg?

It doesn't help that my grasp on futures trading is not rock solid either. I can't seem to retain if a short is a contract you buy when you want the value to go down or if that's the "long" position. As I analyze that now my guess is that short is you want the value to go down to make a profit and long the value to rise to make a profit. So that is one basic question.
correct. just note that here we are dealing with shorts versus BTS, e.g. issuing bitUSD via short would make you some BTS profit if bitUSD value in BTS declines (= BTS value in USD increases), and buying bitUSD long would make you some BTS profit if bitUSD value in BTS increases (= BTS value in USD decreases)

When I read the BitShares wiki entry for BitAssets the opening paragraph was enough to motivate me to write this post. Then under Initial Creation I read this:

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BitAssets are created whenever a short is matched with a buyer at a price set by the median price feed which is provided by delegates.

And was further confused by not understanding what a price feed is, how the delegates set it, on what basis they do so and whether it's individually set by each delegate or some sort of cooperation or consensus is at play.

Other questions related to futures trading procedure are:
1) what do I buy BitUSD with, BTC coins, BTSX shares, or any of the above at bter btc38 or other exchanges where BitUSD is traded?
you buy bitUSD for whatever token an external exchange is trading it, such as BTC
2) can I buy BitUSD in my BitShares client directly without using an exchange?
yes, for BTS
3) do I need to "put up" some bond or form of collateral to buy BitUSD, since it's value is based on trade speculation?
no collateral needed -you simply pay current market BTS price for it (speculative, if you want), then you own bitUSD and your asset can lose or increase the amount of BTS it is worth in the future
4) if no to #3, do I have to "put up" collateral to short or go long on BitUSD?
going long bitUSD is the same a buying bitUSD. For going short - yes you need to post collateral. Going short is like you issue bitUSD into the system that someone buys and pays you the price in BTS. (If there was no collateral requirement, then you could just spend those received BTS somewhere else and walk away from your obligation to cover the short at a loss, if the price of bitUSD in BTS has increased.) Therefore you are required to post 2xmarket value of bitUSD in BTS as collateral (and I heard that currently also BTS proceeds from the bitUSD issuance have to be posted as additional collateral?)

If you'd prefer to discuss this with me on mumble I'll be listening in backroom #3 (just drag your username from the conference hall to backroom 3), or you could respond here. I really need to get these things nailed down in my brain.

Thanks!

https://www.cryptocurrency-bank.com/

The German Fidor Bank wich is already highly involved in cryptospace is together with Kraken.com going to create the first cryptocurrency bank.
Is it possible to send a representative Delegation from I3 or this community to the upcoming workshop here in munich in december?

I would assist however I can.
Maybe Delulo or Xeroc could attend to.
I have the feeling that this is a huge opportunity for the whole BitShares ecosys.