seems the poll is heavily leaning bullish..... makes me think the opposite will happen.
Historically speaking the highest poll vote is more often wrong than right. If the top vote is for going up >300 then it will probably either go up less than that, sideways, or down.
So I was checking out Bitstamp, and I see this automated buying and selling of 0.03 Btc almost continuously. What is the point of that? Won't the trading charges offset any gains? Or, is it some automated system managed by bitstamp to generate volume? Any ideas?
You might be right about that, Bitstamp has dropped below the top five exchanges for volume a few times. They might have decided to start buying and selling to themselves to ensure they stay in the top five. Bitstamp wouldn't pay any trading charges so it wouldn't cost them anything.
My girlfriend has her own business & a lot of her supplies are made in China, it's the Dragon Boat Festival this weekend so literally all of China grinds to a halt this weekend. The factories that supply my partner emailed her to let her know there may be a delay with her deliveries. Any way I just thought I'd mention this here, might be a reason why the BTC price has dipped a bit if it's like holiday season in China, banks are closed etc.
You can read about the festival here - http://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/dragon-boat-festival.htm
That's useful, I only knew about the whole of China grinding to a halt for new year celebrations. The Dragon Boat Festival sounds like it has a similar effect if all the banks are closed because of it. That could make a big difference to Bitcoin's price on Monday morning.
why is there such low volume on bitstamp? is there any controversy surrounding the exchange? i used to hold it in the highest regard.
I don't think it's ever done a proof of reserves since it got hacked, and it wants more KYC than some other exchanges. The exchanges that want retinal scans, passports, bank statements, fingerprint scans, mortgage scans, 20 different types of government ID, etc aren't the most popular exchanges. Nobody knows why, it's just the way it is.