Posted on 12/05/2023 9:23:59 AM PST by Ultra Sonic 007
JERUSALEM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities are investigating claims by U.S. researchers that some investors may have known in advance of a Hamas plan to attack Israel on Oct. 7 and used that information to profit from Israeli securities.
Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks, which triggered a war nearly two months old.
"Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come," they wrote, citing short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that "suddenly, and significantly, spiked" on Oct. 2 based on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
"And just before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased dramatically," they wrote in their 66-page report.
In response, the TASE referred Reuters to the Israel Securities Authority, which said: "The matter is known to the authority and is under investigation by all the relevant parties."
A spokeswoman for the securities regulator did not elaborate, and Israeli police did not immediately comment.
The researchers said short-selling, in which investors expect the share price to fall, allowing it to be bought back at a lower price at a profit, prior to Oct. 7 "exceeded the short- selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis."
That includes the recession following the financial crisis in 2008, the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
They wrote that for Leumi (LUMI.TA), Israel's largest bank, 4.43 million new shares sold short over the Sept. 14 to Oct. 5 period yielded profits of 3.2 billion shekels ($862 million) on that additional short-selling.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Israel ping.
Mossad wants to know.
Al Reuters decoder ring:
“Burn your records NOW!”
Judging by timing alone, the Jewish News Syndicate, the New York Post, and the BBC all reported on this analysis of shorting stocks hours before this Reuters article got published.
The money quote: "the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) said the authors miscalculated, since share prices are listed in agorot, which are similar to cents and pence, rather than shekels - putting the potential short sale profit at just 32 million shekels. "I don't see in the data something even close to what they wrote in the paper," Pagot told Reuters, adding the researchers didn't speak to the TASE or members. "There was nothing unusual in short positions in the stock exchange in the two months before the attack.""
Check Valerie Jarrett’s Ameritrade account.
pageing insider trading mob doll nancy piglousy...
Thanks Ultra Sonic 007.
I think I’ve heard something similar concerning the US financial markets just before 9-11.
Everything South of Thomas Street was kaput for weeks after 9/11. I remember, having worked downtown in that period. Even elevators weren’t working in my business, and I had to carry around a yucky cell phone, in the days before they even became smart. If you shorted the market on 9/10 with pre-knowledge of 9/11, you’d be a long time waiting for Wall Street to reopen in order to cash in.
Not sure if I can post partial articles from Wikipedia, but they talk about unusual trading patterns in insurance company and airline stock immediately before 9-11:
The 9/11 commission does deny this, though.
There’s an academic paper supporting this idea in the Journal of Business.
Abstract:
“After September 11, 2001, there was a great deal of speculation that the terrorists or their associates had traded in the option market on advanced knowledge of the impending attacks. This paper generates systematic information about option market activity that can be used to assess the option trading that precedes any event of interest. Examination of the option trading leading up to September 11 reveals that there was an unusually high level of put buying. This finding is consistent with informed investors having traded options in advance of the attacks.”
Link to the paper: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/503645
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