Comments on: CNBC: Discussing the Plunge Protection Team

By: DavidB

DavidB — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:07:37 +0000

I think you made a mistake there Barry. That looks more like the Monty Python nudge, nudge, wink, wink sketch. Are you sure you put up the right video?

SAY NO MORE!

By: MikeDonnelly

MikeDonnelly — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:04:24 +0000

talk about conspiracy, this video worked fine at 7:30am this morning and now at 10:04am it appears to have been taken down. What’s up with that?

By: flipspiceland

flipspiceland — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:38:26 +0000

These sharp moves over the last 6 months have all the earmarks of “programmed trading”.

And if the government is stepping in to buy and sell index funds, how is that any different from GS or Morgan Stanley doing it? So what?

Frankly, a government as one more player, whether it be a Sovereign Wealth Fund from, say Arabia, Japan, or China likely has been involved in some of the dynamism of the market. Does any one doubt that foreign GOVERNMENTAL entities are speculating in our domestic market?

By: svg

svg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:15:15 +0000

So when the market suddenly reverses or falls off a cliff – is that teh PPT shorting/selling? heh.
Is it so difficult to understand that many traders all hit the buy button at the same time because they seem the same technical setups?

By: Greg0658

Greg0658 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:45:52 +0000

Yea Kernan … 3 steel frame skyscrapers drop in some 7 seconds each in a 12 hour period. Happens everyday via Shock Doctrines.
:-) :-| :-(

By: bdg123

bdg123 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:47:46 +0000

This is ridiculous. But, it is par for the course for the type of guests CNBC has on its show. I’ll tell you exactly what happened on that October rally where many incorrectly called a bottom. The market got away from the major options writers. Without a substantial rally preceeding options expiration, we could have been setting up for a systemic crisis and losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars by many of the major players. (There still might be some stench building out there from unrecognized losses due to the crash and exposure to derivatives.) The delta hedging of a rapidly falling market has a recursive effective that creates systemic risk in the system.

Were we not to see a rally, we could have seen a complete collapse spreading through the financial community. There was likely a concerted attempt at stabilizing the market and running it into options expiration by some very substantial players who eventually covered those rallies and turned around to short it. That is why we got a rally. Conspiracy theories may sometimes be true but most often they are used by people to explain phenomenon they don’t understand.

Actually, it was quite easy to sign up for WordPress.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:29:38 +0000

so with the SP down 4%, the FOMC gives GS a large short term loan at nearly zero interest and tells them to put the funds to work immediately. Decides to buy SP futures in massive size at or above the bid. Next question please.