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President Bush’s enemies have found a new avenue of attack — the online financial markets. There have now been four separate “speculative attacks” on the market in futures contracts on Bush’s reelection probabilities. These futures are real-money “bets” — placed by thousands of traders around the world — on whether or not George Bush will be reelected. For the last several months the futures have been a reliable leading indicator of where conventional polls are heading, and they’ve received increasing mainstream media attention. The attacks on the Bush futures have involved massive sell orders placed by a single individual —...

There is now no question whatsoever that the Bush re-election futures contract at Tradesports.com is being manipulated. Yesterday the price of futures were sold down from about 55 (indicating a market estimate of 55% probability of Bush's re-election) to 10 (indicating a 10% probability)with a single 10,000-lot order entered by a single trader. An order that size represents twice the normal volume of an entire typical day's trading. Within moments after the order was completed, the price recovered back to the low to mid-50s

Tradesports.com Bush Election Futures: Bid: 54 Ask: 54.9 IEM Winner Takes All Bush two-party vote market (combined): Bid: 57.5 Ask: 58.9

There is now no question whatsoever that the Bush re-election futures contract at Tradesports.com is being manipulated. Yesterday the price of the futures were sold down from about 55 (indicating the market's estimate of a 55% probability of Bush's re-election) to 10 (indicating on a 10% probability) with a single 10,000-lot order entered by a single trader. An order that size represents twice the normal volume of an entire typical day's trading. Within moments after the order was completed, the price recovered back to the low-mid-50's. According to sources at Tradesports, yesterday's order was entered by the same individual who...

I used to trade commodities. Two ways to look at it. Charts and fundamentals. Lets start with charts. What you are seeing is a serious market anomaly. Look at a longer time line. What you will see is level prices and demand for a long time. This run up is not natural market action, and outside the bounds of what charting will help predict. What it does show is a massive drop in supply or massive decrease in supply (At least on an expected basis) Layman's translation, Something is really weird with oil prices. The other way to look...

I got the following in an E-mail this morning. Never saw anything on it here, but maybe I missed it. Does anyone know if this story is true? Or is it a mere internet legend? It SOUNDS like the sort of thing we might expect from sKerry, but I need to know if it is factual. ------------------------------- Pass this on. "Good Tuesday morning! John Kerry brought his "front porch meeting" to our Canonsburg, PA neighborhood on Labor Day morning. Since you will never hear the truth from the TV or print media I thought that you should know from someone...

If any of you are familiar with "financial markets",currency speculation, etc.,I am trying to figure out what is meant when an article in a financial journal says an individual "took a massive short position against the US dollar." I'm not naming the individual (for Google search reasons),but he has reportedly been associated with a 1992 attack on the British Pound,a 1997 attack on the Thai Baht,and a 1998 attack on the Russian Ruble. Rather than tie up a thread,I'd appreciate it if you would use the "direct reply" option (reply privately). Thanks !

Just like last night, someone is messing with the Iowa Electronic Market just at midnight so that a snapshot price at midnight, which affects the historical trend graph, makes it look like Kerry is doing better in political futures trading than he really is!

A Poker with Bill Gates (Account 990N : Sequel) The following are audio links to discussion on Account 990N. They are about 48 minutes long. In it, one of guests bring up an analogy that dealing with Account 990N is like playing a poker with Bill Gates with a billion dollar of betting money. Even if you have a royal flush and Bill Gates has nothing, Bill can raise the betting to a billion and you can't. Thus, you lose. Real Audio Link: A Poker with Bill Gates MP3 Link: A Poker with Bill Gates

990N by John Mackenzie June 17, 2004 Received this message from a member of my investment forum who is currently on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange: " Only have a minute but, write more later but... The entire S&P price action in the futures is being controlled by one counter party. All the guys frickin hate them: their CME clearing number is 990N and they clear through Gelber trading. That one account is solely responsible for the current level of the S&P. They are the ones that are throwing the S&P up overnight. Then they are the ones...

One can only speculate, of course, about the outcome of the Enron debacle if investors and regulators had been clued by whistle-blowers into the enormity of the corporation's accounting shenanigans in the years before its implosion. Though it's too late for Enron employees and stockholders, thousands of investors believe a similar implosion is looming in the silver market with potentially catastrophic consequences. Rather than sit back and reap the financial benefits to be gained by what these investors believe will be a much higher price for the precious metal, this indignant army of investors and whistle-blowers has set out to...

Bush campaign ads that fleetingly depict Ground Zero and a flag-draped stretcher are generating Democratic charges of "exploitation" of a national tragedy. Several weeks ago, President Bush donned a racing jacket and presided over the opening of NASCAR's Daytona 500, which similarly drew Democratic criticisms of "exploitation" of racing fans. Does anyone see a trend emerging? Frankly, this Democratic shtick of ranting about GOP "exploitation" is becoming both stale and predictable. Are the Democrats going to feign righteous indignation every time the Republicans engage in successful outreach to the public during this campaign season? Well, I sure hope so -...

Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Revision 1.1) Category Year Title Posted On FreeRepublic Adoption   2002 Pediatrics Group Endorses Homosexual Adoption     Trophy children Yes Bible   2003 What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality, Adultery...     What does the Bible actually say about being gay? Yes     The Christian Confronted by Homosexuality Yes     Talmud on Homosexuality     Is banning the Bible next?     Christianity and Homosexuality Yes     A divisive debate over the Bible spotlighted Episcopalians' OK for gay bishop   2002 Responding to Pro-Gay Theology   1999 The...

The late 1990s witnessed the emergence of the greatest speculative bubble in financial market history. Investors bid up stock prices to unprecedented valuation levels as they extrapolated a temporary surge in corporate earnings growth far into the future. When these optimistic projections failed to materialize, the bubble burst, setting off a chain of events that eventually dragged the U.S. economy into a recession during 2001. In the aftermath of these events, a much-debated question is whether U.S. monetary policy should have reacted more aggressively to the parabolic run-up in stock prices. It has been argued that a policy of "leaning...

It is generally believed that the Democrats can win the presidency next November if there's bad news in Iraq and bad news for the economy. But that's not exactly true. The Democrats can also win if the news on Iraq and the economy are good, as long as the public thinks the news is bad. If the New York Times – and their syndicate of accomplices – can lead the public to believe that the news is worse than it actually is, the Democrats actually have a chance of winning the White House. This is precisely how Bill Clinton beat...

(WASHINGTON) House Small Business Committee Chairman Don Manzullo (R-IL) today introduced a House resolution urging the U.S. government to use all available means to force East Asian countries to stop manipulating their currencies to the detriment of American manufacturers and workers. Manzullo unveiled the bill at a Capitol Hill news conference with Reps. Charles Stenholm (D-TX), Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Baron Hill (D-IN). China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan continually take actions to artificially lower the values of their currencies against the U.S. dollar. Such actions make U.S. exports more expensive to sell to those countries while inviting more cheap...

On the eve of 9/11/03,our cynical media engaged in a day-long airing of the latest Osama bin Laden greetings-with predictable results. There was widespread public uneasiness. There was a sharp decline in stock market values. The credibility of the Bush administration was undermined. The media did say the age of the tape was unknown;but here's what they didn't say : 1. The tape was first offered in March,2003. 2. The foliage in the background suggests it was early Spring at the time the tape was shot; which meant it had to have been shot at least a year before it...

Researchers help define what makes a political conservative By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 22 July 2003 (revised 7/25/03) BERKELEY – Politically conservative agendas may range from supporting the Vietnam War to upholding traditional moral and religious values to opposing welfare. But are there consistent underlying motivations? Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include: * Fear and aggression * Dogmatism and...

More Manipulation Of The West by Cathryn Crawford Finally, Israel is doing what it should have been doing for the last three years (since September of 2000, when the current intifada by the Palestinians broke out) and, indeed, even before that time. Finally, the Israeli army has been given orders to completely “wipe out” Hamas and all its leaders, supporters, and conspirators. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says that he has “made it clear that insofar as terror is concerned, there will be no concessions”, adding that he has made this clear in all of his conversations with the White House...

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8....