Hanky Panky?
Vanity Fair has an article about some stock market weirdness.
It appears that somebody has insider information with S&P e-minis, electronically trade futures contracts linked to the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index. I’m gonna fess up that Momma left me some stock – just regular stock that has done nothing but drop since the day I got it. Other than just regular stock, I might as well be putting my money in a slot machine because I just don’t understand the stock market.
Traders in the Chicago pits have been watching these kinds of wagers with an increasing mixture of shock and awe since the start of the Trump presidency. They are used to rapid fluctuations in the S&P 500 index; volatility is common, of course. But the precision and timing of these trades, and the vast amount of money being made as a result of them, make the traders wonder if all this is on the level. Are the people behind these trades incredibly lucky, or do they have access to information that other people don’t have about, say, Trump’s or Beijing’s latest thinking on the trade war or any other of a number of ways that Trump is able to move the markets through his tweeting or slips of the tongue? Essentially, do they have inside information?
We’re not talking about people making pocket change. One particularly hinkey looking trade netted a potential profit of $1.5 billion. The others are millions. Honey, those trades are standing out like black roots on bleach blonde hair.
Trump is the swamp.
Martha Stewart went to prison for five months for lying about a stock sale. If that’s the sentence for something somewhat “benign” (I’m not defending her), then what should we expect people involved in market manipulation to receive? Or will they get a slap on the wrist? And what happens to foreign actors?
I’ve thought for many many years that those at the top are not (with some exceptions) patriots to their countries, but to whatever global interests increase their wealth, without regard to morals or criminality.
1They loved the tax break/theft but monster’s tariff wars, not so much.
Everyone is running for the safety of bonds because meltdown cheeto is running the volatile market into a crater.
Algorithmic and high-frequency traders were both found to have contributed to volatility in the Flash Crash of May 6, 2010, when high-frequency liquidity providers rapidly withdrew from the market. Wiki.
2Hannah @1, I’m happy to see your correct post. Martha didn’t go to jail for inside trading, she was sentenced for lying to the FBI about it. Now lying to the FBI, and everyone else, is part of the executive branch business plan.
3The people in my house have thought Trump is doing some insider trading, somehow. Or shorting and then announcing a tariff a couple days later.
The day I read that that casino he bankrupted was bought out of bankruptcy by his BFF Carl Icahn. Looked to us like they were just making money off other people losses.
4Echos of the mysterious trades on airline futures on Sept 10 2001.
5Last I heard after people started to look into it the entity who directed for the trade to be made left the money on the table rather then risk exposing their identity. ( Closure of stock market after 9/11 precluded the ability to cash out while no one was looking)
Considering the bush family’s historically sketchy involvement in banking/staock market ( 1 grandfather part of 1932 “Bankers Plot” the other as hitlers banker during the war) some looked askance at them but no one has reported, that I could track down, the answer.
Wonder if that money is still sitting in an brokers account somewhere waiting to be claimed.
Sound like the same scam.
This time around my vote would be on wilbur ross, sec. of commerce and/or the misbegotten spawn of the demented one.
JJ you nailed it, the Stock Market IS a slot machine! It’s a Vegas Casino, basically a wicked shell game created by all the gamblers, get rich quick, and greedy people trying to game the Capitalist system.
6Want proof? Just think, our whole financial system (our livelihoods/financial security) can come tumbling down, simply if the wrong person sneezes in china or if some sane genius moron terror tweets the wrong words, etc.
And YES, Trump or someone is deliberately causing the Market to go up 500 points one day and down 500 the next for personal financial gain $$$, follow the money $$$
A little short this month, Kim Jong-un? Short the market and send some missiles over Japan. (It’s not just public masturbation that we thought it was)
The possibilities are endless.
Hope the SEC did a post-mortem on the stock market after trump pre-announced routine employment numbers ahead of the routine announcement time.
7If there’s a scam, Trumpski is getting a cut.
8Oh Ms Juanita, “just regular stock that has done nothing but drop since the day I got it.” made me laugh out loud. Back in the mid 60s my daddy bought me 25 shares of Hoffmann Industries. It did nothing but drop for years until I forgot about it. But then it did better than drop: around 1973 or so I got a letter from the president of the company (that apparently made broom handles in Sinking Springs, PA. My daddy never cared what a company did, only it’s “financials”). “This has been a hard year for us” the letter began, as Uncle so and so was found with his hand in the till.
I guess they’ve recovered, but I never recovered my hard earned $250.
9Evening J.J.
Go STROS.
But I gotta disagree. trump isn’t the swamp.
Metaphorically speaking, he’s the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
He didn’t create the swamp.
He’s just the pillaging reptilian predator wallowing in the swamp created by repugnantcans.
And a lot of our fellow citizens will go to their graves thinking he was the greatest American.
10Once upon a time we were part of a small group of investors in stuff like Polaroid, IBM, etc. We had to pull out before anything good showed up on our investments cuz babies are expensive. So is homeownership. Then out of the blue we inherit – get this – railroad stock! Just how lucky could we get – NOT! Just to cash in this stuff left us in the hole. The stock market is a very, very strange place. And like my mamma always said, never walk into a dark room. Always turn the lights on first. If you can’t do that, then leave the dark room alone.
11I hope to hell somebody is looking at this.
12Years ago, SIL got his phd and went to work for a California start up. We bought some stock in the company. There was an article in the paper that contained a misprint, so our 1.00 a share stock was $100 a share. It wasn’t 3 days until we were investigated for insider trading. And our broker. When Dh was telling him about the company, he bought some shares, too. The misprint explained the sudden leap.
@ Lex # 6
“And YES, Trump or someone is deliberately causing the Market..”
may be moot but is it as you say some delibrately creating the choas for profit or is it some one aware of the upcoming chaos and someone who, as George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany said, “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.”
13Honest graft v. dishonest graft
One is insider trading the other market manipulation.
Either way crooked as the day is long.
On what to do re investing, the broadest of low-cost index funds is the right way to go for just about anyone. You could buy the Vanguard index that tracks the total US market – it’s available as either an ETF (VTI) or a mutual fund (VTSMX).
You can buy it through any brokerage or just set up an account with Vanguard to do it. Or even easier are the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds, which combine total stock market with bond funds, in a few different mixes for different ages or investment expectations. Look on the Vanguard site for them. They’re basically what a good, honest, financial planner could do for you (doing the mix and rebalancing it to keep the same ratio of stocks and bonds) but at a tiny (1/10th or less) the price.
Ride through downturns. Even a severe crash like the 2008 one was reversed in a couple of years, and then was followed by a continued surge. (Remember that Republicans in charge are bad when downturns happen – they typically do the wrong things to “help” – but ride through anyway.)
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