[hxn]

I would like to bet on the performance of Bitcoin Cash versus Bitcoin. But I cannot think of any way to do so. Any ideas?

[bradleyjg]

In a mature liquid market, like exist for major US equities for example, you'd go long bitcoin and short bitcoin cash. Your broker would calculate the margin ratio on the total position and so you wouldn't get a margin call just because the bitcoin cash part went up, so long as bitcoin went up even more. There'd likely be some sort of carry cost.

But bitcoin, and especially bitcoin cash, doesn't have a mature liquid market, so this really isn't possible in any sort of off the shelf way. If you wanted to put at least a few hundred million into the position maybe you could get an investment bank interested. But even then they might not want to touch bitcoin cash.

[naturalgradient]

If you can go short on either one, you can create any bet via a weighted + leveraged long/short pair bet. I think bitfinex allows this.

[hxn]

I would not do it on an exchange for two reasons:

1) Counterparty risk. Bitcoin exchanges go out of business way too often.

2) They have enough money to manipulate the market.

[Bromskloss]

Could you clarify your second point? Would they manipulate the market in a way that is detrimental to you? Would it help that you were not their customer, but someone else's?

[androng]

You can do it on Bitfinex by opening a long margin position on the BCH/BTC pair. Bitfinex requires a 10k account minimum and non-US residency though.

[clayrichardson]

BitMex