In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Questions I wonder if the 9/11 commission is going to ask:
Who shorted UAL and American Airlines in the days proceeding 9/11.
Put Paid
But it was during the final few trading days (the market closes on weekends) that the most unusual variances in activity occurred. Bloomberg data show that on 6 September, the Thursday before that black Tuesday, put-option volume in UAL stock was nearly 100 times higher than normal — 2,000 versus 27 on the previous day.
On 6 and 7 September, the Chicago Board Options Exchange handled 4,744 put options for United Airlines' stock, translating into 474,000 shares, compared with just 396 call options, or 39,600 shares. On a day that the put-to-call ratio should have been roughly 1:1 (no negative news stories about United had broken), it was instead 12:1.
On 10 September, another uneventful news day, American Airlines' option volume was 4,516 puts and 748 calls, a ratio of 6:1 on yet another day when by rights these options should have been trading even.
No other airline stocks were affected — only United and American were shorted in this fashion.
Accelerated investments speculating a downturn in the value of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch (two New York investment firms severely damaged by the World Trade Center attack) were also observed.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange is investigating each of these trades and at this time is declining to offer comment on its progress. The volume traded and the one-sidedness of the trades, however, have raised suspicions that those who had knowledge of the details of the attacks (e.g., which airlines would be involved and that the World Trade Center was a target) could have been behind them and profited mightily.
I don't know about you, but any investment transaction I was involved in required name and address... and yet 2.5 years later we don't know who did this? Did the Chicago Board Options Exchange shut down their investigation? What's going on?
- rob 1:10 PM - [PermaLink] -
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