Cancelation after five days

I placed an offer to buy bitcoins, someone accepted but the deposit transaction was not confirmed in 5 days. On the sixth day I asked to cancel the trade, as it had taken too long and I couldn’t wait any longer. The moderator did not respond, and on the seventh day the deposit was confirmed. I had already given up on the fifth day and asked the moderator to cancel. Am I required to pay the trade? Can the moderator force me to pay or should he comply with my cancellation request?

I read in a post that any trader can request a cancellation until the deposit transaction is confirmed.

"If you open a dispute or it takes too long for you and prefer to not continue the trade but cancel it, you can open a dispute. Tell the arbitrator the tx is not confirmed and if one of the traders prefer to cancel the trade the arbitrator will close the case so the seller gets back his BTC and both get back their deposit. "

I think once the offer has been taken you just need to wait for confirmation.

As far as I am aware, you cannot cancel an offer prior to conformation.

If the price moves in a large direction one way or another then this results in someone getting a good deal and the other getting a less good deal. Not much can currently be done mempool fees can be pretty volatile and low fee trades can get stuck for a bit when there are sudden spikes in on chain transaction volumes / fees

I understand your point of view. But reading Manfred’s post, I understood that if the deposit is not confirmed one of the traders can open a dispute, inform the moderator and get his deposit back. When we create a transaction and someone accepts, it is because it is good for both sides, and both are happy. But when the blockchain hangs for more than 5 days, and it gets really bad for one side, I’m fine with canceling.

I think the post was from 2017. I was not about then but think the trade process is slightly different in that the trade window only starts counting down once the trade has been confirmed.

If you wish to cancel the trade you can open a dispute by selecting the pending trade and click: ‘Ctrl + o’ or ‘alt + o’ or ‘cmd + o’

However, I am not sure if this is possible? I will find out for you.

Until the deposit tx is not confirmed, there is no trade going on. Once the deposit tx is confirmed, cancelling it needs to be justified and agreed between both parties, and mediator might apply a penalty for the party who wanted to cancel it.