Hillary Clinton Turned $1,000 Into $99,540, White House Says

New Yolk Slimes (Historical Archives) ^ | March 30, 1994 | STEPHEN LABATON

[Utilizer]

WASHINGTON, March 29— The White House said today that in 1978 Hillary Rodham Clinton invested $1,000 in commodities futures and that the investment grew in 10 months of trading in the notoriously volatile market into a gain of nearly $100,000.

Seeking to dispel suggestions that the trades were risk-free and improperly arranged by an Arkansas lawyer who represents one of the state's most powerful companies, the White House issued a statement this afternoon that said the First Lady had put up her own money and that she bore all of the financial risks in a marketplace where three out of four investors lose money.

The officials also released a year's worth of brokerage statements from one of Mrs. Clinton's two accounts. They show winnings outrunning losses about three-to-one. 'Too Nerve-Racking'

Senior advisers to President Clinton and his wife said in a briefing this afternoon at the White House that Mrs. Clinton based her trades on information in The Wall Street Journal, and that she stopped trading by 1980, despite her success, because, as one senior aide put it, "she did not have the stomach for it any more and found it to be too nerve-racking."

The string of winning trades began in October 1978, as Mr. Clinton, then the state's Attorney General, was leading in polls in the race for Governor.

The White House insisted today that Mrs. Clinton received no improper financial assistance on the trades from the lawyer, James B. Blair, a close friend who at the time was the top lawyer for Tyson Foods of Springdale, Ark., the nation's biggest poultry company. Mr. Blair has said that he had suggested that she get into the commodities market, and that he used his knowledge of trading to guide her along the way.

[Utilizer]

My attention was peaked earlier this week when I happened to notice that many of the individuals I had overheard discussing the upcoming elections had never heard of MRs. Bill's questionable, some would say outright criminal, activities in years gone by.

Some (most) were too young to have paid attention at the time, and others were die-hard liberals who had dismissed everything as nothing more than Mrs. Bill's evil Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy accusations.

This person should never had her more than ample posterior positioned anywhere near any seat of power.

I firmly believe that there is ample evidence to attach the label of 'evil' that she accuses others of to herself with good reason.

[Parley Baer]

Trump will have a whole list of things to prove Hillary is a Crook.

[blueunicorn6]

But she gave all that money to poor people.

She never makes money for just herself.

[RummyChick]

It can be done in commodities. Last week was a wild time in the soybean market.

[NRx]

See this discussion of the cattle futures scandal...

https://self-evident.org/?p=1038

It was purely criminal.

[gaijin]

Her FIRST trading experience and she did COMMODITIES..!

That’s like the first time a young boy drove, he chooses a Formula One car..!

And did she put it into the wall, her first time driving..?

Oh, no! Not only did she finish, she won, and with a WORLD RECORD..!

All from READIN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL..!!

Now, it had NOTHING to do with her Governor husband and his regulatory relationship with those same businesses who could then count on his loyal amity, OH NOOOOOOO....!

[DIRTYSECRET]

She got away with it. Water under the bridge. Perhaps the Republicans can learn something from it. The press will not allow that to happen though.

[lonestar]

Hillary is a lot more crooked than Bill. Her "work" on the Watergate committee is all you need to know about Hillary. She was fired by the DEMOCRATS!

She has contributed to the corruption of the Democrat Party!

[Patriot Babe]

Next I will be hearing that Cankles has turn Water into Wine...sigh. She is nothing but a crook...CROOKED HILLARY!

[amnestynone]

I used to be a commodity broker in Chicago in the ‘70’s. I know how the system worked. Houses often times entered orders and left out the account numbers. They put in numbers later(which is illegal). The winning trades were placed into favored accounts (usually the brokers own). And the losers went to the customers. They were able to do this because the customers stupidly give them power of attorney or discretion to do so. You just don't start out with $1000 and end up with $98000 dollars unless you are maybe a member floor trader in that length of time. And even if they did you would not just hang up with that kind of money and stop trading. This practice was especially wide spread among houses that were closest to the Chicago Mercantile exchange as opposed to the Board of Trade. The firm in question was Refco which was a Mercantile firm specializing i nCattle futures. No one who was in this business seriously believes that this was on the up and up.

[DaveA37]

Anyone ever wonder how those new politicians can turn a few bucks when they first get elected into millions when they quit, retire or are thrown out. I believe there is a term for it, its called “Insider Trading”.

[Dr. Sivana]

The press will not allow that to happen though.

Trump has shown the way to do that if you have the tools to execute (established persona, excellent contacts and or money in some combination). No matter what the press tries to push, the trick to get them off message. A good way is to say something sensational sounding but of little long-term actual consequence, or better yet, something that will be received differently from the general public differently than the press (who lives in its own cocoon, protected not only in fly-over country, but even from the working classes in the cities and northeast).

An example of the former is if the candidate suggested a federal law mandating that Justin Bieber be tied down and covered with molasses and fire ants. It makes the front page of the New York Post, because it has to, and is easily walked back. A real life example of the latter is saying that there will be a wall, and Mexican will pay for it, or that the wall just got ten feet higher, etc. It gets covered, because it HAS to be. AND, the press thinks Trump is done now, but it changes the subject and solidifies the support already there.

[Utilizer]

The problem is not proving that Mrs. Bill is a crook. The problem is that there are far too many people who ignore that fact in favour of her gender or because she has a ‘D’ after her name.

To liberal democrats, simply being a democrat seems to be all that matters...

[The Continental Op]

One magazine called her trading the equivalent of buying a pair of ice skates on day one and winning an Olympic Gold medal in figure skating on day two.

From Wiki:
“In a 1998 article, Marshall Magazine, a publication of the Marshall School of Business, sought to frame the trading, the nature of the results, and possible explanations for them:

These results are quite remarkable. Two-thirds of her trades showed a profit by the end of the day she made them and 80 percent were ultimately profitable. Many of her trades took place at or near the best prices of the day.
Only four explanations can account for these remarkable results. Blair may have been an exceptionally good trader. Hillary Clinton may have been exceptionally lucky. Blair may have been front-running other orders. Or Blair may have arranged to have a broker fraudulently assign trades to benefit Clinton’s account.”

[texteacher]

According to a 2011 Forbes article, congressional insider trading is not illegal.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2011/06/01/insider-trading-rules-that-dont-apply-to-congress/#6dbc178ef862

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

This headline disgusts me.

"The White House" should not be making partisan comments such as this. It ought to be called "The Black House" since the occupant no longer represents all people or even the nation he supposedly leads, and is in no way a center of whiteness, purity, dignity, righteousness, life, truth, respect, and wholesomeness. He is a hypocrite, deceiver, liar, and destroyer.

What this nation needs is a revival leading to repentance, the fear of God, and humility.

[Utilizer]

Ahh... I’m guessing you missed the part where it is noted just after the headline that this is a Historical Article from the NYT archices.

It came out in 1994. March of that year.

Just FYI.

[stocksthatgoup]

Just by reading the WSJ. /s

[Utilizer]

Oopsie! “Archives”, not “archices”. *wince*

Typing too fast and not proofreading enough! *grin*

[Pearls Before Swine]

Why, you’re talking about “bucketing” trades.

It’s amazing how few people understand how this worked.

Blair (Tyson’s attorney and VP, and Hillary’s adviser) called up a broker friend of his, one “Red” Bone (how Southern). Red had, incidentally, been censured for bucketing trades. (The phrase comes from the old days, when the tickets were tossed in a bucket, and the winners/losers assigned at the end of the day. Jesse Livermore wrote about it with stocks.)

So, what almost certainly happened is that Blair calls up Red and says, “Me and the little lady is going to do some trading for a while. Put most of the winning trades on her account, and the losers on mine, until I tell you to stop.” So, Red does as told, and the account goes onward and upward until the agreed upon bribe amount of 100k is reached. At that time, the smartest woman in the world loses interest in commodities trading and focuses on motherhood.

There’s so many things wrong here:
* inadequate margin
* Tyson having a number of affairs before the Governor, Bill, such as being allowed to run overweight chicken trucks.
* No records (all conveniently lost in the mists of time)
* A broker of known questionable integrity

It’s very damning of how the Clintons have always done business. But most people who aren’t familiar with markets find it hard to understand how baldly obvious and bad it is.