Stock-Markets / Market Manipulation
Feb 09, 2010 - 02:11 AM
By: Graham Summers
Many investors have written in asking me what happened on Friday. For those of you who weren’t watching the tape, stocks entered a free fall around 1PM Eastern Time. It looked like we were going to get another massive drop similar to the one that occurred at Thursday’s open.
However, suddenly at 2PM stocks began to stage a sharp reversal with virtually every major US index ramping over 1% in a matter of minutes. Having collapsed for days, stocks actually managed to close Friday at a gain.
There are a few explanations for this.
First and foremost, a number of rumors came out Friday afternoon concerning a potential Greece bailout either from the European Central Bank or the G7 Government meeting.
Given the massive amount of moral hazard/ market props that have occurred since the Financial Crisis began in 2007, traders assumed Greece would be bailed out rather than default. Consequently, even rumors of a bailout were enough put a temporary floor under the market collapse.
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