Markets can't be manipulated...unless

[Entendance]

Recovery Looking Tired Already?

With nothing in the way of fundamental news to spark today’s global stock-market rally, it’s been easy for investors to turn the page on latest round of economic data, which show more evidence that the pace of growth is easing...
http://tinyurl.com/33yexob

Last posts? at <View active topics>

You may add <active topics> to your favourite links
search.php?search_id=active_topics

[sowhat]

German Economics Minister Confirms Fed Manipulates The FX Market
http://tinyurl.com/2wc4pve

[dlry]

Everyone is deceived
30. 05 2010

The Secretary/Treasurer of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, Chris Powell, addresses in an exclusive interview for MMNews different aspects that have to be taken into account when it comes to the gold market. In his point of view, the suppression of the gold price is a “war being waged by the U.S. government against the rest of the world.”

Another basic question: how does an artificially low gold price work against public purpose? Who are the injured parties apart from gold producers and speculators?

Because gold is a potentially independent currency, the rigging of the gold market is the prerequisite of the rigging of all the other currency markets, the government and commercial bond markets, the commodity markets, and the equity markets. Everyone is deceived. Most cheated are producers of commodities, savers, and countries whose economic governance is more responsible than that of the United States

http://tinyurl.com/2bwfp2y

[defio70]

Obama Gives Hint: Look for a Hot Jobs Number on Friday
http://tinyurl.com/37jzcsy

[dlry]

Look how easy it is to manipulate a London futures market....What other small markets can you think of that might be experiencing similar activities? hmmm...


Broker fined for market abuse in FSA commodities crackdown

By Javier Blas, Commodities Correspondent

Published: June 3 2010 03:00 | Last updated: June 3 2010 03:00

A commodities broker was fined for market abuse yesterday in the first such action by the Financial Services Authority .

The move is a sign the City regulator is starting to crack down on price manipulation in the London-based raw materials markets.

The UK is home to the world's second-largest commodities centre, after New York, with trading in important benchmarks including Brent oil, copper, aluminium, gold, silver, white sugar, cocoa and coffee.

The UK watchdog's move comes after the US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, toughened its approach. The FSA said it had fined Andrew Kerr , a former broker at Sucden Financial, £100,000 and banned him from working in the financial industry. Mr Kerr has agreed to settle the case.

The regulator said Mr Kerr "deliberately manipulated" the Liffe robusta coffee futures and options markets on August 15 2007 on behalf of a client, which it did not identify. It is unclear whether the FSA will take action against the client, but coffee market participants said it was likely to do so.

Mr Kerr organised a series of trades during a key period of the day, which serves to price options, to boost artificially the price of coffee futures, the FSA said. Mr Kerr moved the market to $1,752 a tonne, up from about $1,145. The "small size of the coffee futures market meant that it was particularly vulnerable to price manipulation," the FSA said.

"Mr Kerr's financial benefit from the market manipulation was limited to his commission," the regulator said. But it added he was "doubtless motivated" by a desire to attract further business. Brokers estimated the commission at as low as $100 and no more than $500.

Sucden Financial is owned by sugar trading house Sucres et Denrées of France. Tariq Ahmad, director of strategy, said that Mr Kerr left 15 months ago. "The FSA had no criticism of Sucden Financial's supervision, or internal procedures."

http://tinyurl.com/35ly989

[dlry]

Clean up is so easy in a rigged system....Chump change fine means the game continues as is...


FSA Hands J.P. Morgan Record Fine

LONDON—The U.K.'s Financial Services Authority said Thursday it has fined J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. £33.32 million ($48.8 million) for failing to separate client money from the firm's money, in the largest fine in the FSA's history.

The market regulator also warned firms that it has more cases in the pipeline, urging them to ensure their internal controls over client money separation are in place.

The FSA said J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. didn't follow the rules by keeping client money held by its futures and options business separated from the firm's own money between November 2002 and July 2009.

It said that during that period, the client money balance held by the business varied between $1.9 billion and $23 billion. The error, which was discovered last July, occurred following the merger between J.P. Morgan and Chase, and wasn't deliberate, the FSA added. Clients didn't lose any money and the mistake didn't result in any incorrect financial reporting, the regulator said.
"Had the firm become insolvent at any time during this period, this client money would have been at risk of loss," the FSA said in a statement.

The company "committed a serious breach of our client money rules by failing to segregate billions of dollars of its clients' money for nearly seven years. The penalty reflects the amount of client money involved in this breach," it added.(edit:lolol you think? seriously..the fine does not reflect the crime..s---bags)

A J.P. Morgan spokesman in London declined to comment.

"This is a staggering fine for what is in effect an administrative oversight," said Simon Morris, a partner at London law firm CMS Cameron McKenna. "If this doesn't serve to wake up every senior manager to check that he or she has carefully identified all risks and is properly managing them, then nothing will."

The FSA's latest enforcement move comes as the agency continues to face pressure to prove that its existence is essential for the U.K.'s financial health. The agency, which has a toothless reputation, was nearly abolished following national elections last month. But the new government coalition decided to keep it.

In the statement, the FSA said it has created a new unit covering client money and assets, and warned that it has "several more cases in the pipeline."

"Firms need to raise their game as the FSA's focus on this area will continue to intensify," said Sally Dewar, FSA managing director of risk.

J.P. Morgan received a 30% discount on the fine for agreeing to settle the issue at an early stage, the regulator said. Without the settlement discount, the fine would have been £47.6 million, the FSA said.(edit:maybe next time they can get a 2-for-1 discount?)

Previously, the largest fine handed down by the FSA was a £17 million fine against Royal Dutch Shell PLC in 2004 for market abuse.

[dlry]

$34 Billion Asset Manager Says Market Prices Are Manipulated, Accuses NYSE Of Intellectual Property Theft, Debunks HFT "Liquidity Provider" Lies

As part of the SEC's process to fix the broken market, it is currently soliciting public feedback on a variety of issues. Why it is doing so, we don't know - after all anything that does not conform to the SEC's preconception of what the most lucrative market to the SEC's recent batch of clients (see earlier news about an SEC director going to HFT specialist Getco) is, just ends up in the shredder anyway. At this point to believe that the SEC will do anything remotely in the interest of investors instead of millisecond speculators, is naive beyond compare. Nonetheless, while combing through some of the recent public responses on the topic of market structure, we came across the following presentation by $34 billion Southeastern Asset Management (SAM), titled "Comment & Analysis on Equity Market Structure" which must be brought to the attention of all those who have the temerity to defend HFT as an altruistic source of liquidity provisioning. SAM's 4 points are simple, and laid out very easily so that even the mildly retarded public, pardon, GETCO servants at the SEC can understand it: "1) The intent of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as provided for in its preamble is being twisted and abused for the benefit of gamblers and to the detriment of investors. 2) The markets are not "fair and honest", 3) Securities prices are presently "susceptible to manipulation and control, and the dissemination of such prices gives rise to excessive speculation, resulting in sudden and unreasonable fluctuations in the prices of securities. 4) The preceding three issues are fixable by the SEC." Let's dig in.

http://tinyurl.com/2ajshae

[Entendance]

...Unfortunately for the economy, consumer spending is still the main driver of growth. If the consumer is spending enough to drive growth, well, there won’t be any. The past few quarters GDP numbers have all been boosted by artificial means, the peculiar math of inventories and government spending, but those are fading, and we are getting a picture of the real, underlying strength of the economy. You may want to avert your eyes.

Consumer spending is hitting a plateau, if not actually rolling over. The reason, quite simply, is that all the government props that boosted spending — the home-buyer tax credit, the cash for appliances program, the income-tax credits that were baked into taxes this year — are fading, and wages haven’t grown enough to take over...
http://tinyurl.com/263n684

Anse Intendance...because this place is for Uncolonized Minds


LAST POSTS?
at <View active topics>
You may add <active topics> to your favourite links
search.php?search_id=active_topics

[dlry]

Kate Welling's Seminal Interview With Themis Trading On Market Structure

Some, like Sal Arnuk and Joe Saluzzi, who have long been warning about the imminent threat of a May 6-like event, only to be proven correct, not only on that score, but also on their admonitions that the entire market structure is broken, end up being interviewed by such exalted financial figures as Kate Welling. Others, like their arch nemesis Irene Aldridge, who has long been warning about the imminent extinction of all those who do not buy into the religion of "HFT or bust", end up being mocked by the cash cow from The Jon Stewart Show. We present the complete interview in which Sal and Joe deconstruct market topology, HFT, innovation, market manipulation, front running, Flash trading, collocation, VWAP, Reg NMS, and everything else you have always wanted to know but been afraid to ask.

http://tinyurl.com/35tqoo5

[dlry]

Opinion: Gold price manipulation - probably. Conspiracy - a matter of semantics!
The argument about gold price manipulation goes on, but is gold that different from many other financial instruments in this respect?

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Tuesday , 29 Jun 2010

LONDON -

Is the gold price being manipulated? There are those who say no, while others say yes - notably The Gold Anti Trust Association (GATA) - and on balance it looks to an impartial observer (relatively) that the answer is probably in the affirmative. But perhaps no more so than any other commodities and some stock prices. There is a whole mammoth industry out there - the big banks, hedge funds etc. - whose whole purpose is to make money from money and the more you have in the first place the easier it is to do. Not by producing anything useful, but through manipulation of prices through short selling in huge volumes to drive prices down, buying on the turn, allowing prices to rise back up, taking profits, then more short selling to drive prices down again and the cycle continues. This works better in a bull market, which gold has been in for the past ten years or so.

http://tinyurl.com/2avw4xt