Turns out the reason stocks were in freefall is that terrorists in London and Dubai were manipulating it with short sales. At least that’s the widely whispered rationale behind the SEC’s banning of short sales that has pre-market futures positively stratospheric.
Jim Cramer wrote about it, and then Barry Ritholtz claimed that Jim Cramer got the idea from Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management.
Whether it’s the new Resolution Trust Corp. on the way to buy bad assets from banks and insure money market funds, or the ban on short selling, nobody could have analyzed their way to seeing this upward action.
As I wrote on Wednesday, the forces moving the market this week had nothing to do with any fundamentals nor indeed any technical analysis. There was nothing in the investor’s or trader’s toolbox to navigate this week. The market was buffeted and propelled by bailouts and behind-the-scene deals.
One truism that worked: don’t sell in a panic. Goldman Sachs hit $86.31 yesterday. This morning pre-market, it’s at $140. Wow.
