Posted on 05/07/2010 6:05:18 AM PDT by blam
8 Theories For Why The Stock Market Plunged Almost 1,000 Points In A Matter Of Minutes
Michael Snyder
May. 7, 2010, 7:06 AM
In one of the most dizzying half-hours in stock market history, the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points on Thursday, May 6th before bouncing back to close down 347.80 points. This represented the biggest intraday decline since 1987. But what made this crash so absolutely shocking is that it happened in the course of less than an hour. Between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. the Dow lost over 700 points before dramatically bouncing back about 600 points. Two of the 30 stocks in the Dow, Procter & Gamble and 3M, plunged more than 30% in just 15 minutes. Accenture went from trading at around 40 dollars a share all the way down to one cent before bouncing back. Traders and investors were left completely stunned and wondering what in the world had just happened.
So what did happen?
The following are some of the most common theories being put forward to explain what happened....
#1) A Bad Trade
It has been widely suggested that a "fat finger trade" was responsible for triggering the panic. According to CNBC, "sources" have told that network that a trader (possibly at Citigroup) entered a "b" for billion instead of an "m" for million in a trade involving Procter & Gamble.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Dow Now Down Over 220 As Europe Explodes (now down over 500)
Someone could have made a LOT of $$ yesterday.
Where does Flash trading fall into this?
A bunch of 30millisecond looks at the market in front of the regular schmoes would look like perfect place to stab a blood funnel.
I’m sure someone made a bundle yesterday. Probably not an accident.
With Gold spiking over $32 an ounce, I guarantee you some people made money yesterday. Of course there is a lot of doubt about the real quantities of gold that brokers are holding, along with persistent rumors of Chinese gold bars that have tungsten cores...
There may be eight THEORIES why the market tanked so fast, but there is only one REASON: fear of Obama policies.
I'm looking towards a computer program bug or manipulation.
"George W. Bush's fault" didn't make the list.
I’ve been a finance professional for nearly 20 yrs.
What happened yesterday was corruption/terrorism/theft. The potential culprits are either politicians, wall street insiders, or foreign terrorists.
The chances of anyone being accountable for this, are basically nil.
Yesterday was frightening, literally bringing on the collapse of the system, but by judging reaction, very few people seem to care.
It will take 3 business days after yesterday before some folks realize how they got screwed by the plot. Yesterday there were some folks that made a killing, and others that got killed. Some don’t even know it yet.
I’m very concerned that many of my clients mutual funds became victims of this scam, and unless a proper investigation was done, nobody will even know about it.
Attorneys related to this, could literally have enough material to work on for the rest of their careers?
Why keep money in the stock market?
The rules that apply to you, don’t apply to everyone else. The ability to have made naked buys yesterday was most certainly out there. Now, after the fact, folks could be found guilty of “free riding”, but the criminals that did this, recieve diplomatic immunity in the USA.
I’m literally sick over what happened yesterday, and I just don’t think people realize that this was potentially as devastating financially as anything the world has ever seen. The market should have erased all trades yesterday, and closed today. No way you reopen the markets without knowing exactly who/what/where/why/when this all happened. Unless of course, they DO know, but just aren’t telling us. I find it extremely odd, that the fat finger thing has not identified a person or firm.
As many others have posted, the fat finger excuse is completely laughable, or an indication of what a POS our current trade system is.
In retrospect contrary to all the crass spin, there is only ONE reason.......This economy sucks a big one. No other way to put it.
Tangible assets would be much better right now.
It doesn’t matter who the enemy is, China, ME terrorists or our own government, killing the economy is one way to win without a bloddy war.
What was happening on the FOREX between 2:00 PM EST and 3:00 PM EST yesterday ?
I find it interesting, that we have yet to see one victim of yesterday screaming bloody murder. Some stocks got to a penny, and there were trades that happened directly related to these lows. Yes, some trades were cancelled, but others were not. The size of potential losses were enough to bring down the biggest financial players in the world.
I’d hope, that there are an army of govt, legal, and law enforcement officials quickly trying to find people that benefited from this event. Follow the money, and you’ll see who’s behind this.
Another event like this, and we could see a huge run on the financial system.
HFT Algos Are All Everyone's Going To Be Talking About Today
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