Goxxed: Stop whining

You are not a good day trader. There I said it. And if you are, then my hats off to you. Technical trading is an incredibly stressful activity, requiring nearly incessant research, discipline, self-reflection, and emotional control. With all the preparation in the world, you can expect to be correct a little over 50% of the time, depending on your individual technique and stop-loss/take profit profile. It takes years to become an effective trader, and unless you are one already, or were born with prodigious skills, you aren't a good day trader, at least not yet.

One can understand the frustration caused by the continuing lag, mini-lot bot trading, and DDOS problems associated with the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, but unless you actually expect to make money from time-sensitive trading practices, then the lag is probably doing you a favor: telling you to stay out of that game.

If you are trading on the medium term, days or weeks, then the lag shouldn't really effect your ability to place a market order. You just have to be a little patient.

If you are trading on the long term, months or years, then lag should also be of little concern. By the time you complete your repurchase of fiat currency, you will have added to, or lost a significant portion of, your original investment, regardless of the daily fluctuations.

If you aren't trading at all, and plan to just spend your Bitcoins at some point in the future, then the Mt. Gox lag monster should be of absolutely no concern to you.

Now, for the remaining people, those who wish to successfully duck in and out with multiple trades per day, hour, or minute, which cannot truly be a significant proportion of Bitcoin holders, you can justifiably complain about the issues.

But those who are chiming in on the Gox-hate, I would recommend you take a page out of Louis CK's routine, "Everything's great and nobody is happy," my favorite section of which is where he describes a man who uses in-flight wi-fi for the first time, and has a violent outburst of emotion when he discovers the wi-fi is slow. Louis remarks, "How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago."

With this in mind, it would be nice if everybody took a minute to be thankful and grateful for what Mt. Gox does provide, and understanding of what they have to deal with, in addition to your rancorous criticisms. When is the last time that your customer base grew by multiples of 100%'s? (Do you have any customers to begin with?) I know that the Mt. Gox team is working hard to shore up their platform, smother the lag, and be compliant with the US FinCEN guidelines (which is not cheap by the way. I heard the figure $25 million in this year alone). Things will get better. At least we can buy and sell Bitcoins from the safety and comfort of our living rooms.

To put a fine point on it, Louis CK reminds us: "Give it a second. It's going to space."