der gestern in USA für einen künstlich hochmanipulierten Schlusskurs sorgte. Cramer hält das für eine Form von Insider-Handel, von dem auch diejenigen profitierten, die (von Insidern) in Kenntnis gesetzt worden waren, dass zum Marktschluss ein Kauf-Programm "angesetzt" werden sollte.
D.h. der Markt wurde - trotz grottenschlechter Einzelhandels-Zahlen, die den grottenschlechten Neue-Stellen-Zahlen der Vorwoche (4.6.) folgten - von denjenigen "hochgeschoben", die über die finanzielle Kraft verfügen, mit ihren Käufen im dünnen "Holiday"-Markt die Vorzugsrichtung zu bestimmen und allen anderen aufzuzwingen.
Die Unterscheidung zwischen "guten Bullen" und "bösen Bären" - d. h. die Bemühung von moralin-sauren Feinbild-Klischees (wie bei den selbsternannten "Hobby-Börsianern" im AZ-Thread) - ist in dem Kontext völlig sinnlos, weil es jeweils dieselben Leute sind. Mittwoch sahen sie, dass man mit einer computergesteuerten Verkaufs-Lawine das meiste Geld verdienen konnte, Freitag spielten sie mit ihren Maschinen den Short-Squeeze. Am meisten aber interessiert sie, dass überhaupt viel Bewegung aufkommt, weil sich dann im High-Frequency-Trading durch Order-"Frontrunning" tonnenweise Cents einsammeln können, die sich zu Hunderten Millionen summieren - tagein, tagaus. Fundamental sind die Bewegungen bedeutungslos. Doch sie verderben die althergebrachte Aktien-Kultur. Privatinvestoren ziehen sich aus diesem Markt angewidert zurück und überlassen das Feld den Maschinen, Frontrunnern und Scalpern, denen völlig wurscht ist, wo die Aktien übermorgen stehen. Steigt es dann im Wochenrückblick ein bisschen, meldet sich "programmgemäß" die Yellow(bzw. "rosa-braune")-Finanzpresse mit trendfolgenden Begleitkommentaren, dass "Anleger wieder vorsichtig Mut fassen".
Dass Cramer wirklich verärgert ist, glaub ich übrigens nicht, denn er ist schließlich Bulle. Bei Street.com spielen sie zurzeit einen koketten Rollentausch, bei dem Bulle Cramer bärische Kommentare ablässt und Bär Doug Kass bullische. Trotzdem ist es mMn wichtig, dass hier ein Insider - Cramer hatte immerhin 20 Jahre lang einen großen Hedgefonds - meine immer wieder vorgetragene Behauptung, dass der Markt massiv manipuliert wird (manche bezeichneten mich deshalb als "Verschwörungs-Theoretiker"), aus erster Hand bzw. von vorderster Front bestätigt.
Jim Cramer Blog Mad About Today's Close By Jim Cramer Street.com Columnist 6/11/2010 6:46 PM EDT
Yes, I am mad about the close. I am mad at all the unexplained nonsense that keeps happening and how we have become some sort of illiquid over-the-counter market where, if someone knows there is a program, they can run ahead of it and make a ton of money.
There's basically an insider-trading case based on the market itself, a run-ahead trade that the pros know, but don't talk about. It's as plain as day -- as plain as the nose on your face.
We all know that if you have the size to buy in this market, what happens is all of the offerings get pulled because they're chimerical ["gelogen"] and based on the same computer programs. That means the big orders can move the market with impunity [ungestraft] because there are no offerings to be had.
The high-frequency traders aren't in it for direction, they are in it for rebates and fractions of pennies, and all of the other now well-documented vigs that they take.
But, because there are no offerings, you get this situation where, if you know there is stock to buy and you see it coming, you can take stock ahead of it and offer it on the close. We used to see this when we had additions to the S&P 500 and we all knew there would be buying at the close, but the arbitrage got so figured out that not much money has been made doing it in recent years.
Not so this. Today's travesty [Zerrbild] was typical -- and remember I am trying to tell you that the real travesties are the ones to the upside, so I am not blaming shortsellers. The buyers came in with guns blazing and, if you know it's going to happen -- it is so obvious to me but not, apparently, to the SEC -- you can lift stock in front of them and sell it higher because you are in possession of what are basically by-rote orders linked to ETFs that have to be filled at the close.
When the SEC studied whether these orders would affect the close, it talked about our liquid and deep markets and how sellers would match buyers. It just isn't so any more. The research was all hogwash anyway, done by academics who couldn't trade their way out of a paper bag and SEC researchers who are probably too embarrassed to admit they are wrong, or may have moved on to some of these firms, like this associate from the SEC who moved to the HFT firm today that Doug Kass referenced.
I will go a step further. I have to believe that this is a well-known secret in the business for anyone who executes these orders or gets a tip that they are coming, because it is obvious no one is there on the other side, so the market can be gunned.
I point it out not because I want the government to investigate. That's hopeless. But because it is still one more reason why individuals are leaving the stock market and we are turning it over to the gamblers, the front runners, the scalpers and everyone who has nothing to do with owning stocks themselves. It's a scalpers' front-running paradise.
For years this SEC had one mantra: Level the playing field. That's gone totally out the window. This SEC's biggest statement has been to go after Goldman Sachs (GS) for perhaps ripping off one of the most sophisticated investors on the planet. To heck with this more important imperative.
The SEC has to figure out a way to understand that the market looks rigged, and it can be rigged, and it must be dealt with head on. The regulators seem far more worried about not rolling back anything that has been approved, as if once approved, there's no reason to go back.
There are plenty of reasons, most importantly because, for all intents and purposes, people are scared by the way this market works. They don't trust it. They don't trust the government to protect them.
And you know why?
Because it doesn't. It doesn't even pretend to.
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