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Paul:

Been watching the situation in Greece on U.S. Cable News Channel and the dropped in the Dow and, its fluidity at the past minutes or so..

(D)

Probably caused by high frequency algorithmic trading.
And there was I hoping to accumulate high dividend yield stocks at bargain prices......

Paul,

A 9% drop in the value of US stocks because someone 'hit the wrong key' !!

Are you serious?

Who on earth commands so much control of assests to accomplish such a feat in a single trade!! presumably the value must have been masive to facilitate such a cascade of selling.

That such a 'mistake' can occur is worrying in itself, are they not controls about such things, if not, why not?

If it was a 'cascade' effect what does it say about the volatility of markets at the moment.

Extraordinary times.

How fragile and volatile the foundations of our society have become.

Why cant more people see it Paul?

'Twitter' - apt

documentary about the role of mathematicians [quants] as 'the brains' behind the crash




need an 'afghanistan' type powerpoint about the debt? try this

Interesting american chap on R5L this morning waxing lyrical about Goldman sachs 'financial terrorism' ... being responsible for creating the dynamic which has ultimately resulted in three 'murders'in Greece yesterday.

I coined the phrase a while ago 'white collar crime against humanity' to describe the dynamic underpinning all this current suffereing and the suffereing to come and I stand by it.

To me theirs is the greater crime when compared to the rioters in Greece who petrol bombed the bank, not wanting to kill anyone, but wanting to vent frustration at the injustice. But who will get arrested and left to rot in a Greek jail for the rest of their lives, economic advisors to the Greek government? New York based execs at goldmans?

I guess humanity keeps on finding new ways to prove we really are, at our core, savage animals despite efforts through the centuries via religion and systems of government to contain our baseline programming for the greater good, the cunning savage within us keeps finding new ways to by-pass those controls.

We are at that point now and i see no evidence as yet outside of these blogs to suggest we are going to be any smarter about the ineviatable self correction to come than we were in the past.

''It was the best of times, it was the worst of times''

Bring it on.

7

it might not be the people the media has identified

if you watch 'Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street' then one might say this was a mathematician led meltdown.

they show the mathematical formula that crashed wall st.

what might not be coming across is that the greek and other possible bailouts are in fact the bailing out those banks who own the bonds.

so public money [which means taking on more debt] is once again being used to defend the profits of the european banks. anyone would think banks are Pandas or some other species on the edge of extinction?

It wouldn't be a single fat finger trade. Compliance rules would inhibit a silly price, both in-house and on the exchange.

Automated trading will have played a part. It bounced back though, so why the big panic :-)

Oh the "fat finger", of course........

#6 Jericoa

If you haven't been following Max Keiser these last few months, where have you been??



I reckon you get far more incisive financial insight from Max & Stacy than the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's trucular trio (oh, and more entertaining too!). Stuff they're picking up at the moment include:
- The Gold price sky-rocketing (is there a global SDR reserve currency thing going down at the moment? In amongst your election fest, take a look at KR40 and other 6th May postings)
- The Dow plunging then bouncing back (hypothesised as PPT automatic stabilisers in action)
- Iceland making key arrest of Kaupthing CEO on fraud charges

Now I wonder if any of that lot is what's actually making Wall Street jittery? Or you could just swallow the fat hand thingy.....

Bye y'all!

BRILLIANT JERMY TONIGHT

PAXMAN TO ED DAVY: "So you might consider getting into bed with Peter Mandelson?"

You can take coalition too far, Jeremy.

WESTMINSTER LOGIC FROM THE MOUTH OF MILIBAND D

'If the electorate's votes (via a totally iniquitous system) result in a spread of SEATS with no overall majority, IT MEANS THE VOTERS WANT THE PARTIES TO DO DEALS!'

OK Bandy-Boy - lets hear how your worked THAT out. (Paxo didn't ask.)

The ECB will have to start printing money and then start buying southern european gilts. Just as the the Brits have done at home!

"The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission said in a joint statement late Thursday that they are working closely with other financial regulators and exchanges 'to review the unusual trading activity that took place briefly this afternoon.' "



As we all know, it was a fat hand:

BRILLIANT EMILY TONIGHT

The 'Whoosh - Plop' white board is EDGY beyond the wildest dreams of morondom.

It's all going awfully well.

PS Is it me, or does Dimbo express his swings counter-intuitively?

barking is just on.

surely the best constituency name for this whole election?

ARE YOU FROM A LIB/DEM - CON AREA?

Did you get a GLOSSY, FULL-colour flyer, from the Cons, with this Big Scare Lie on?

"CONSERVATIVES MUST WIN HERE TO STOP ANOTHER FIVE YEARS OF GORDON BROWN"

I wish to establish if this was a Central Office lie, or local, and then define its legality.

(I am politically neutral)

THE MAGNIFICENT SIX

Thatcher, Kinnock, Blair, Major, Ashdown, Iain Duncan Smith.

All insufferable.

What are WE doing wrong?

14. At 00:05am on 07 May 2010, barriesingleton wrote:
IT MEANS THE VOTERS WANT THE PARTIES TO DO DEALS!'

OK Bandy-Boy - lets hear how your worked THAT out. (Paxo didn't ask.)

Won't tell; don't ask. It has worked before.

Being told what I want is getting tiresome.

Especially from a totally discredited politico-media establishment.

Maybe we need a poll?

I predict a riot.

#18 "barking is just on.

surely the best constituency name for this whole election?"

Here in Orpington we're not far off Barking ;), we just elected Jo Johnson (Boris' brother). Is that Jojo (was a man who thought he was a woman)?

THE FOURTH BATTLE OF NEWBURY (#21 and my #19))

Let's have the riot here in Newbury Junkk. London is so, like, yesterday.

Newbury is really on the map, with a retail development and under-water car park.

We can call a 'MARCH AGAINST THE POLITICAL LIE', then lunch, and a riot.
How does that grab you?

23

'No riots please we're British'

perhaps a game of rounders instead?

With the results I feel like I've been asked to lead a conga across the dancefloor, have done so willingly and then turned round to find no-one else is in it.

On the national finances I think we'll end up going zombie like Japan have rather than get a handout from the IMF. It'll be an island economy tradition.

23. At 09:17am on 07 May 2010, barriesingleton wrote:

:)

Well, it just shows what polls, and pundits' predictions are worth.

Actually I see a bit of foot-stamping, with the possibility of slight huffing and puffing in the afternoon. Unsettled later... and into the unforeseeable future.

The prospect of being 'lead' further by a succession of tanned men saying they did great by not tanking as bad as predicted, ra-ra'd on by their tribal PRasNews clubs, is.. unpalatable.

'You go' 'No, you go' 'No, you go' 'Sod it I'll go' 'But it's not your turn' 'But he says he'll help me if I help him' Ain't democracy great?

Much talk of mandates, given or not enjoyed. Hard to see anyone being on solid ground when clear majority didn't vote for them.

Lumme. Pretty much everything wrong so far, yet still the media and talking heads are still spinning daft predictions.

No one did what polls predicted, or various tribal media tried to steer, so some clear rejections there. Not that this will deter 'em.At least some will get work, and paid.

But there surely has to be constitutional change when the governance of England is so influenced by the election results of Wales and Scotland, when promises made, and votes garnered as a consequence, seem to have impacts felt or otherwise when not accountable?

@6 Jericoa
@12 Hawkeye

Just listened to Max Keiser. Spot on!

And apart from RBS' continued losses, there is the elephant in the room of the PFI.

If this were Germany, the parliamentary arithmetic would dictate a "grand coalition" of the Tories and Labour. The electoral arithmetic suggests that about 60% of the country want a centre left one.

However, for the longer term good, Labour should stay out of office so it can renew itself (if that is possible, which I'm not sure of); but it must also admit its many mistakes much more fully than it has been prepared to do so far.

The biggest mistake was getting into bed with the City and accepting it's view of the world and the economy.

Let the Tories have a minority government. They won't be able to push their more stupid ideas through, yet we shall see them in their true colours!

Paul,

Maybe a trigger-happy set of algorithms was more to blame for the Dow tanking yesterday:



Has Wall Street actually created it's very own automated Doomsday Machine?

#28: oof, scary.

does it remind anyone of one of the potential DoomsDay scenarios of the Cold War, where auto-firing defence computers could have launched upon accidental events - such as the norwegian weather balloon incident? Or ANY event of an EMP explosion near a 'sensitive' area?

could it be something wired into highly hierarchical structures? Maybe there's something in Machiavelli about it...?


sasha: personally, i would prefer to observe the Tories 'true colours' from a safe distance - such as them being in opposition. Whilst allowing them to utterly destroy the remnants of our Economy and society may prevent them from being electable again for a few Parliaments, it is extraordinarily harder to rebuild a functioning Social system than it is to destroy one.

very similar to what the more hard-headed economists were saying about the moth-balling of the Steel mills.

destruction is easy, building far more difficult. It would be preferable not to have to, no matter the small joy in seeing the General Public realising the terrible error of voting Tory, and the consequences for ALL of us.

"See? I TOLD you so!!" is small comfort as poverty goes through the roof, community/racial tensions reach 1930s levels, our economy nosedives to 19th Century levels, and our cities burn whilst the Tories and Banksters sup Champers on their luxury yachts and private jets, sniggering at the colossal misery going on below them.

the Tories may spend more on spin now, but at heart they are the same as they have been ever since the Party was formed. Upstart, callous oiks who appreciate the misery of others, especially if they have caused it, because that gives them 'justifications' for their feelings of superiority.

in the Tory worldview, its Dog Eat Dog - and pit-bulls win out over hard-working dogs such as collies. Foul people, in the main.

to paraphrase Churchill: "The best argument against a Tory Govt, is 10 minutes conversation with a Tory MP."

congratulations to ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ studio and commentators over a marathon election night and day special...we really do have the best public broadcasting service in the world....is Dimbleby still awake?