Market's late rebound may revive manipulation rumors

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | Don Bauder

[dalereed]

I think this is much closer to reality than speculation.

[Poohbah]

All it requires is a suicidal degree of stupidity on the part of the big trading houses.

[spoiler2]

The plunge protection team performed this function regularly, during the last two years of the Clinton Fiasco, IMHO.

[bandleader]

Another"Conspiracy Theory"?Did You Ever Hear Of "Bargain-Hunters"??

[Oldeconomybuyer]

How many mutual fund managers were seen firing buy orders from behind the grassy knoll?

[steveo]

ABC radio yesterday said the closing rally was '...due to greedy investors looking for bargains'

[w1andsodidwe]

I believe that program trading could also be an issue. In other words, you have all of these funds setting indicators in the same or similar computer programs that signal when to buy and when to sell. It stands to reason that when the price drops then the buy indicators kick it and it looks suspicious.

I have always believe that program trading should be banned because of this, but a lot of people perfer to trust the program that was designed by a human more than their own instincts.

[dead]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[Ciexyz]

Bad news, if the Europeans distrust our markets and are pulling money out.

[DownWithGreenspan]

No doubt about it. But don't forget that "market manipulation" works both ways - up and DOWN. And who benefits when the market goes down, or from a so-called "bad economy"? Democrats.

When the Dow is in full crash mode, that's not "little investors" causing it, it's big investors. Little investors likely don't even realize that people can and do profit in a DOWN market (short sellers, e.g.).

I wonder what the political contributions of the big brokerages and mutual fund companies look like? Couldn't be that they go mostly to Dems, could it? Couldn't be that these scumbags artificially propped up the market during the Klinton years of Fraud and Deceit, and are now doing the opposite in order to harm the economy and G.W.B. and Congressional Republicans as we come up on the 2002 elections?

Anyone who naively believes that the market is driven by small investors and that no manipulation occurs had better not even be in the market, because they are going to get burned bad.

DWG

[eno_]

The big brokerages are susceptible to pressure. What makes you think the government refrains from using tools it has handy?

[Nov3]

bump for later

[Pete]

Another"Conspiracy Theory"?

Hardly a conspiracy theory. The "Working Group" was formed after the 1987 crash. Manipulation of index options and the futures market is observable.

Here is a Washington Post article from February 23, 1997 titled the Plunge Protection Team.

Labeling stock market manipulation as a "conspiracy theory" is lazy.

[Uncle George]

Yes it was manipulated by millions of Americans who chose to NOT SELL their Mutual funds in spite of the liberal efforts to bring this econemy down so as to help their election hopes.

[Guillermo]

The short sellers – who bet the market will go down ...hurriedly cover their shorts by buying stocks. Then buyers, believing there is a rally afoot, jump in.

This is exactly what the Asst Dean of Emory U's biz school said this morning. He was also bashing the "analysts". "Were they selling furniture before they became an analyst"?

[Poohbah]

The big brokerages are susceptible to pressure. What makes you think the government refrains from using tools it has handy?

Sure. Uncle calls the brokerage and proposes something unethical and illegal. Brokerage president invites Uncle to perch and rotate on the "finger of friendship." Uncle applies pressure. Tape recording of phone call mysteriously turns up at the editorial offices of the New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Barrons, and Fortune. O'Neill spends several days trying to defuse the issue before getting fired.

[Dog Gone]

I have no doubt this happened. What normally would have happened was an even sharper selloff at the end of the day as mutual fund managers struggled to come up with the cash for those investors who sold their mutual funds late Friday or on Monday.

Instead, an inexplicable rally in the index occurred, even though the overall market was broadly lower. There is no rational reason for it except that it was intervention. I'm not really opposed to that. The air needs to be let out of this market in manageable steps, not in a very short time.

[lone star annie]

I have thought this since the 90s. Bob Rubin was at the root of the market bubble to enrich his buddies on Wall Street. Payback time to sink the markets in order to let the RATS control the markets.

If in the minds of the public, that only RATS can deliver a strong market that will ensure RAT control forever. That is why the media keeps harping the importance of the stock market.

[LibWhacker]

. . . the Fed and/or Treasury call the big houses on Wall Street and tell them to buy index futures and options.

Somebody tell me again why it's not a good idea to require government to get its revenue, not through taxation, but through investment and speculation in the markets? Because you don't want the government dominating and manipulating free markets, right? Well, guess what? . . . It does anyway.