“Principal program trading is a way to get the market to go in your direction”

July 1st, 2009 by stacyherbert

Stacy Summary:  ZeroHedge has been just such an awesome source of info and has been the lone wolf on this program trading (I’m sure Max will explain for you this weekend on the Truth About Markets).   The important info comes in from about 03.43

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88 responses so far ↓

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    @ME .. “Something keeps Arnold from issueing a Californian Dollar, but what?”

    Lack of money ?
    ;-)

    Sorry about that … again .. I just checked my blood pressure again, it’s down a little right now ! I ate a few tomatoes, they’re supposed to knock it down by 10 pts.

    BTW…
    Some Of Yesterday’s Buyers Of AIG Shares Couldn’t Sell Today
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/some-of-yesterdays-buyers-of-aig-shares-couldnt-sell-today

    Back to Arnold…
    Mad Max ? …. more like Dad Max !

    You really have to wonder about Washington ( FEDeral Govt. )…
    They give the big banks trillions and let the richest US state go BK for the sake of a few billions. Just shows how much they care about main-street !
    @Dedo asked whether they are “cleansing” the system.
    I would like to think so … but it really means “ending” the system … hopefully.

  • Mike
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    @max

    who really runs GS? it can’t just be the people whose names appear on their public docs

  • Mother Earth
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    @Phil No, I mean issue, as in ‘just like the fed’. You don’t need money for that, only the willingness of californians.

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    @ME .. On your video .. “simple solar heat-power”

    I had a professor friend in Duesseldorf many years ago called Ulli. He won an award for inventing something similar to what you showed. His idea was to use Alu-Foil which was formed into a cone-shape to trap sunlight and use it to heat copper water pipes. The small-contraption could be made for a few pennies … it was used in India IIRC.
    The idea was to be able to build as many as you wanted to afford for the 3rd. world countries.
    There are loads of good ideas that never get “commercialized” .. because “commercialized” means extracting the maximum amount of money out of the little guys. i.e. if it’s too cheap, there’s no money to be made by destroying “existing” markets/products.
    Sad !

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    @ME .. “I mean issue, as in ‘just like the fed’.”

    I think you didn’t “see” my little joke ?
    Of course I know what you mean … I was just having a little joke !

    Sure they could “issue” their own bank notes, but I suppose that would mean dislocating themselves from the “United” in USA !
    Does Arnie have the “Terminator” guts ?
    ;-)

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    @ME … ” Bank of America to accept California state IOUs ”
    Jul 1, 2009, 7:04 p.m. EST

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-to-accept-california-state-ious

    Is that close enough ?
    ;-)

  • Mother Earth
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    @phil Yes, those light funnels are efficient (must track the sun though). And yes, typically the low tech, low cost solution is either suppressed or discredited.

    I really had to dig for the relevant info on the solar heat power. Much excellent research is simply locked up. In a way Google Patent does a good job in keeping usefull information public..

    You could call it proactive business model inertia. Most businesses can’t really change without destroying themselves or rendering their employees ineffective.

    btw. Want to invest in a kick-ass patent application?

  • Mr Supergeek
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    All run by computers….I hope it’s just a publicity stunt to promote the new terminator movie….

  • Per
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    Wooooooooow!!!

  • geopol
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    134.5 Billion bonds in Italy. Story no longer covered. Why?

  • frances snoot
    Jul 1, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    AXELROD:” I think the president’s sense of solicitude with those young people has been very, very clear, and we’re very mindful of that. We are also mindful of the fact that the nuclear weapons in Iran and the nuclearization of that whole region is a threat to that country, all countries in the region, and the world. And we have to address that. We can’t let that lie.”

    Who is David Axelrod?
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/us/politics/09axelrod.html
    “The two-hour sessions are just one way in which Mr. Axelrod is making the transition from Chicago political consultant to the White House. His title does little to capture his full importance to Mr. Obama. His voice, and political advice, carry more weight than most anyone else’s on the president’s payroll.”

    the president’s payroll…discretionary war you know….eeeerrrrrrgh

  • Scott from Oregon
    Jul 1, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    I just got back from A drive down into the Bay Area (San Fran) from Oregon. There were very few highway patrolman out. Maybe one-fifth of a normal Tuesday.

    My home town Santa Rosa, is full of shuttered businesses that sparang up around the freeway in the last ten years…

    People are “seeing” a problem, they just aren’t being told what the problem IS.

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    RECAP:

    Max Keiser – ” Painting the tape ” http://tinyurl.com/l7v8gr

    Are Goldman’s computers painting the tape in the last twenty minutes of each day? http://tinyurl.com/nvrgzy

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    Dividend.com – Fund Managers “Paint the Tape” – Mar 28, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/mnka8r

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    Insiders Exit Shares at the Fastest Pace in Two Years (Bloomberg) http://tinyurl.com/lush9h

    Insiders Selling At A Furious Pace (Business Insider) http://tinyurl.com/cyuan3

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 6:36 pm

    @Klaos Good Stuff!

    Goldman Sachs is recording keystrokes of the users of their portal to frontrun trades. On Zero Hedge:

    Is Goldman Legally Frontrunning Its Clients? http://tinyurl.com/ne8vld

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    Painting the Tape: Aggregate Evidence PDF http://www.wallis.rochester.edu/bernhardt/mut_economicsletters.pdf , by Dan Bernhardt (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – Department of Economics ) and Ryan J. Davies ( Babson College – Finance Division ) Economics Letters, Vol. 89, pp. 306-311, 2005 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=797545#

  • frances snoot
    Jul 1, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    “The just-solved problem is related to a much older problem, devised by the ancient Greeks, that asks whether it is possible, using just a straightedge and compass, to draw a square with an area that is exactly the same as that of a circle. In 1882, mathematicians proved that such ”squaring of the circle” is impossible because the area of a circle, pi times the radius squared, involves pi, and pi is not a rational number. ‘No One Knew Where to Begin’”
    http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/06/science/squaring-the-circle-new-light-on-old-riddle.html

    The circle is the occult symbol for woman, the square represents man. So of course men would call Pi “irrational”. Such an inordinate amount of time was spent on this riddle! Interesting symbology evolved representing man in a circle with a square encompassing the whole. Yet, not even until this day, has man achieved the dominion he so desires.

    http://arthistory.about.com/library/weekly/bl_leo_vitruvian_man.htm

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    Goldman Sachs The Fourth Branch of the U.S. Government http://tinyurl.com/ox4f4v

    Painting The Tape http://tinyurl.com/mrgbzg

    Painting The Tape – stock prices manipulation http://tinyurl.com/mwczrv (Article Under)

    Who out there is messing with MY STOCKS?

    SOMEONE is sort of manipulating the price of my stock. If I don’t sound indignant, it’s because I’m not sure what to make of it; but I suspect that a lot of this goes on. For example, I own a biotech stock that wasn’t seeing any activity. Then early one day three trades are reported in the exact same second. Each involves only a few hundred shares, but combined they bump up the price 13 cents. Thanks!

    Illegal? Such tinkering seems fairly common among my kind of stocks–that is, cheap, risky, thinly traded Nasdaq issues boasting little besides potential. I ask my money-manager friend Jim what is going on. “Oh, yeah,” he says immediately. “That’s called painting the tape. Traders sometimes do it at the end of the day to make a stock portfolio look larger.” They also do it, I contend, to suck in unsuspecting investors. “Of course, it’s totally illegal,” Jim adds, and then pauses. “Well, it’s unethical, anyway.”
    “Uh-huh, it’s called painting the tape,” agrees day-trading elder statesman Harvey Houtkin. Take a more serious tape-painting example: A stock trades at $1 until somebody suddenly offers to buy 100 shares at $2 a share. The offer is accepted, and the trade is reported, along with the 100% price jump. “You can see a price go up by two times and the next thing you know it’s being mentioned on CNBC,” says Houtkin.

    Is CNBC getting paint on itself by mistake? I watch one morning. While CNBC mentions lots of stocks, in each instance it gives a plausible reason–for example, an earnings surprise. There isn’t any paint on the stock-tip Web sites I check, either.

    So if people are painting the tape, how does word get out to us, the greedy and credulous traders? I hit pay dirt with the plain old list of best-performing Nasdaq stocks, which today includes a $1.50-per-share auto-supply outfit whose morning stock price punched a 44% hole in the ceiling despite zero company news. Curious, I call the company for an explanation. “I’m curious, too,” says the voice at the other end, sounding kind of lonely. The stock goes back down a few days later.

    Not high art. A Nasdaq official says tape painting includes all sorts of scammy behavior and is a legal gray area, although traders must never create an artificial stock-price move. “What makes our antenna go up is when there is no news but the stock price jumps,” he explains. I tell him about the auto-supply stock and he says he will look into it.

    My guess is that on any given day scores of painters are at work touching up hundreds of stocks, their activity camouflaged by the zillions of legitimate trades. I’m not even sure whether it’s always seriously harmful or just sort of sleazy and pathetic. But it sure is out there, so don’t let yourself get painted into a corner.

  • frances snoot
    Jul 1, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    For BRICK!
    http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=6926
    China to buy more gold.
    (Check out the cool gold underwear at Market Skeptics)
    http://www.marketskeptics.com/

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 8:16 pm

    Goldman Sachs: “Engineering Every Major Market Manipulation Since The Great Depression” http://tinyurl.com/lwzo7w

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    @frances snoot Good Stuff!

    I am not sure if the link you put here will work the same tomorrow?
    http://www.marketskeptics.com/

    To be sure though I klicked on the title ” *****Gold’s Extraordinary Properties***** ” to get the direct -properties link
    http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/07/golds-extraordinary-properties.html

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    HOT NEWS!

    JP Morgan 45 million euro Hidden Derivative Commisions Fraud!

    JPMorgan Chase & Co, UBS AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Depfa Bank Plc which are under investigation for fraud over derivatives sold to Milan. The banks defrauded the city by misleading it on the economic advantage of the financing, and hid their commissions on the derivatives.

    JPMorgan charged about 45 million euros in commissions that were hidden from the municipality, while Deutsche Bank made about 25 million euros, Depfa 21 million euros and UBS 10 million euros, court documents show.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=ai_P0zI5a3es

  • Maynard G. Krebs
    Jul 1, 2009 at 9:38 pm

    AUDIO
    John F. Kennedy Reading the Declaration of Independence

    http://www.nytimes.com/audiopages/1957/07/04/national/19570704_KENNEDY_AUDIO.html?_r=1

    round and round we go

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 1, 2009 at 9:50 pm

    SHOOTS?

    U.S. Diesel Stockpiles Rose 28% in 6 months, the highest in at least 16 years, signaling fewer deliveries need.

    Diesel fuel for delivery at New York Harbor fell an astonishing 56 % in the year ending in May!

    FROM: U.S. Diesel Supply Climbs as Goods Orders Slip: Chart of Day (Bloomberg) http://tinyurl.com/lvdg6n

  • Don
    Jul 1, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    I am really surprised that they did not try to drown him out with conflicting chatter and two talking heads talking all at once to drive him back. Why the acceptance to quest’s opinions and agreeing if none of the shit that is happening is real and the worst is past and green shoots and all the bull!?

    “Trust nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.” an old NY Jew. (my ex father in law) taught me this one.

  • Don
    Jul 1, 2009 at 10:43 pm

    @Youri Carma

    I have been witnessing a similar trend with two companies that I hold stock in on the ASX. A sudden increase with no company announcements. Both companies were queried by the ASX to which they both replied “I don’t know why the share price has witnessed such sudden gains” Again, as with your story they dropped back down a bit and now they are moving up and down daily with no spkies or “paint” at least so it seems.

  • Giuseppe Bagodonutti
    Jul 1, 2009 at 11:18 pm

    @ Don

    RE: Obscene Share-Price Spikes with no NEWS

    Same shit on the TSX, too…

    Lately it’s been companies involved with REE’s (Rare Earth Elements)
    probably becuz of Jim Dines…
    (he seems to have a cult following)

    although, with the SUB-PAR Volume as of late,
    it’s practically only MARKET MAKERS that are creating any action…
    (especially CIBC with their strings of orders for 500 shares… who the fuck buys and sells like that on PENNY STOCKS other than Market Makers?!?!?!)

    Thankfully,
    it APPEARS that we don’t have the GOLDMAN SUCKS Black Box problem in Canada yet….
    maybe on the Large Caps, but I stay away from those…
    (mainly becuz I can’t afford to play in that sandbox)

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 11:22 pm

    @Youri … “painting the tape”
    @Don

    You guys obviously have NOT read “Trading with the enemy” from 2002.

    http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Enemy-Seduction-Betrayal-Cramers/dp/0060086513/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246515573&sr=1-2

    … ” This is a true insider’s story — an honest, raw, page-turning account that takes us on a journey through the volatile, anything-goes world of hedge funds. From Cramer & Company to the brokerage houses and analysts to the reporters who cover the market action, we are shown a Wall Street where almost everyone is dirty — a world where even the SEC fails to maintain order.

    At the heart of this narrative is an incredible character study of Jim Cramer, one of Wall Street’s brightest stars. Employing any means possible to make money, Cramer engaged in brilliant but questionable strategies that danced on the edge of ethics and legality. A typical day inside the fund would begin with Cramer’s declaration, “I love the smell of money in the morning,” followed by a boom-box serenade of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise.” At the first sign of trouble, however, Cramer would turn paranoid and vicious, smashing phones and computer monitors and screaming insults that would leave even the toughest employees in tears.

    In the tradition of Liar’s Poker, this fascinating account of greed and excess on Wall Street will inevitably force the business world to reassess itself through the story of one young man who walked away from it all.

    About the Author
    Nicholas W. Maier began working for Jim Cramer of Cramer & Company in 1994. He spent the next five years with the hedge fund, during which time he started writing. He lives in New York City. “…

    The book said that Cramer would phone Maria and feed her with some information on a particular stock, and then do the opposite once people buy or sell it.

  • Phil
    Jul 1, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    @Giuseppe … “Penny stocks and Biotechs”

    Have you noticed that many penny Biotechs have been raising ( yet again ) cash for shares, i.e. dilution !
    OK, I suppose it’s to be expected in that these are almost zero-revenue with ongoing R&D operatiosn like GNVC, GNBT.

    A good way to check how “badly” a stock is being manipulated is to watc the Yahoo Finance message boards. If you see loads of bashers or pumpers, it normally means a HF is employing the boiler-room guys to move the share price via emotions.

    Many people don’t believe that these boiler-rooms actually exist. They do .. I actually saw an Advert , some Co. looking for people to do exactly that ! The Ad was on a well respected MSG-board, I forget which , and I saw it many years ago.

    I repeat, buying stocks is pure gambling on WS.

    In Richard Bookstabers book “A Demon of our own Design”, he basically said the same and warned retail investors to ONLY trade Indices, because stocks are totally manipulated and the small guy will get burned badly.
    FWIW

    PS:
    Bookstaber invented many of the derivative instruments and worked for most big names at some stage . He even mentioned a department I used to work in ( software development ).

  • Mother Earth
    Jul 2, 2009 at 12:02 am

    @phil The If the IOUs are in C$! ;-)

    I promise less silly posts, but here you have a clear example of the positive side of inflation..

    http://tinyurl.com/nyak4k

  • Phil
    Jul 2, 2009 at 12:15 am

    @ME … “the positive side of inflation”

    LOL !
    But .. what’s good about that, the poor guy is soooo small !
    ;-)

  • Phil
    Jul 2, 2009 at 12:28 am

    Ron Paul’s Weekly Address (6/22/09)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBCOSV3lAco&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

    Must listen … reminds me of everything Max keeps on saying !

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 2, 2009 at 12:39 am

    @ Phil

    No I havn’t red it but I quess you’ve trigered me to make my Summer Must Read Book Tips:

    SUMMER BOOKTIP: Trading with the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer’s Wall Street by Nicholas W. Maier ISBN: 0-06-008651-3 Preview: Chapter One http://www.wnyc.org/books/3493

    I recently got a Book Tip about Human Genetic History from P. A. Vroon Tranen van de krokodil (Crocodile Tears, 1989) http://www.nlpvf.nl/basic/auteur1.php?Author_ID=72

    Another very interesting book rom Piet Vroon;
    Smell: The Secret Seducer http://www.nlpvf.nl/book/book2.php?Book=68

    At Amazon Smell: The Secret Seducer by P. A. Vroon http://www.amazon.com/Smell-Secret-Seducer-P-Vroon/dp/0374257043/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

    SUMMER BOOKTIP: Trading with the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer’s Wall Street by Nicholas W. Maier ISBN: 0-06-008651-3 Preview: Chapter One http://www.wnyc.org/books/3493

  • stacyherbert
    Jul 2, 2009 at 1:00 am

    Lots of very smart comments on last night’s Newsnight:

    http://bit.ly/12kH0r

  • Youri Carma
    Jul 2, 2009 at 1:04 am

    What connects Human psyche in Piet Vroons “The Crocodile’s Tears” and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    In “De Tranen van de Krokodil” (translates as: “The Crocodile’s Tears”), the psychologist Piet Vroon wrote that our behaviour is often rather irrational because our brains were built up layer by layer in the course of our evolution. These layers don’t always collaborate properly, which sometimes even leads to a kind of short-circuit in the brain. With the help of computational science, it is possible to prevent the same occurring in complex layered systems such as a grid. http://tinyurl.com/l33f5v

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