NYSE Rollercoaster Ride... What if...?

[Oil Patch Press + 5]

The NYSE has been on the wildest rollercoaster ride in my recent memory. And I'm no spring chicken. Down 700 points, then up 400 points, down 600 points, then up over 1,000 points... what gives? I see commentators mostly attributing the wild fluctuations to algorithms. That's probably true, but what if that's not entirely all of what's going on? What if there's something more going on that no one suspects? What if a foreign country had enough financial resources--enough U.S. currency in particular, that they could station thousands of minions all over their country working for them? What if such a country had these minions all working on their personal PCs, with their own personal investment account to buy and sell stock on the NYSE, but using the host country's government funds? What if such a country had as much as half a trillion dollars in U.S. currency available to them, that they could use for this purpose? What if this country directed their minions (all thousands and thousands of them) to buy-buy-buy one particular set of stocks one day, driving the index up. Then the next day (or 2-3 days later), sell-sell-sell those same stocks? Buy low, sell high--rake in billions of dollars in profits by having the financial clout to direct the market? Such a country would need cutting-edge technology, the kind making it virtually impossible to trace any of this back to the host government. What would stop such a country from using such a scheme? U.S. investment laws don't reach into foreign countries. And what would stop such a country from using the financial gains from such a scheme to pay for an immediate and huge military buildup? And, maybe, as the ultimate payback for suddenly-imposed tariffs on their exports to the U.S.? What about China?

[A/Plague + 50]

On 1/23/2019 at 7:30 PM, Oil Patch Press said:

The NYSE has been on the wildest rollercoaster ride in my recent memory. And I'm no spring chicken. Down 700 points, then up 400 points, down 600 points, then up over 1,000 points... what gives? I see commentators mostly attributing the wild fluctuations to algorithms. That's probably true, but what if that's not entirely all of what's going on? What if there's something more going on that no one suspects? What if a foreign country had enough financial resources--enough U.S. currency in particular, that they could station thousands of minions all over their country working for them? What if such a country had these minions all working on their personal PCs, with their own personal investment account to buy and sell stock on the NYSE, but using the host country's government funds? What if such a country had as much as half a trillion dollars in U.S. currency available to them, that they could use for this purpose? What if this country directed their minions (all thousands and thousands of them) to buy-buy-buy one particular set of stocks one day, driving the index up. Then the next day (or 2-3 days later), sell-sell-sell those same stocks? Buy low, sell high--rake in billions of dollars in profits by having the financial clout to direct the market? Such a country would need cutting-edge technology, the kind making it virtually impossible to trace any of this back to the host government. What would stop such a country from using such a scheme? U.S. investment laws don't reach into foreign countries. And what would stop such a country from using the financial gains from such a scheme to pay for an immediate and huge military buildup? And, maybe, as the ultimate payback for suddenly-imposed tariffs on their exports to the U.S.? What about China? 

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by A/Plague