December 27, 2017

Bitcoin Trading Sure Is Volatile

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I was puttering around this morning looking at the latest price for bitcoin, and I happened to switch over from a chart of closing prices to a box-and-whisker plot. Here’s what it looks like:

Two things jump out at me. First, trading this week—and for the past month—has been wildly variable. Over the course of just a few days, bitcoin trades have ranged from $10,000 to $16,000. That’s a huge range, and suggests quite a bit of trading friction.

Second, for four straight weeks the low trade has been at precisely $10,000. What’s up with that? Does it have something to do with the start of futures trading on December 10?

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It’s really that simple. But if you’d like to read a bit more, our membership lead, Brian Hiatt, has a post for you highlighting some of our newsroom's impressive, impactful work of late—including two big investigations in just one day and covering voting rights the way it needs to be done—that we hope you’ll agree is worth supporting.

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