We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

Debate House Prices


In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non MoneySaving matters are no longer permitted. This includes wider debates about general house prices, the economy and politics. As a result, we have taken the decision to keep this board permanently closed, but it remains viewable for users who may find some useful information in it. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

S&P and Price Sensitive Information

As you are probably aware, S&P 'accidentally' downgraded France before later recanting.

As you are also probably aware, bond yields on OATS, French Government bonds, rose during the day both prior to and after the 'mistaken' announcement.

If OATs were falling in price, another way of saying yields rose, then it would be possible to profit in various ways from that. Examples are short selling OATs or proxies for them like French bank shares, buy put options, selling call options, short selling futures and buying CDSs (Credit Default Swaps).

Further to that, if you trade 'intraday' (buy and sell on the same day) it's incredibly cheap as you don't have to fund your position (depending on what position you take).

It seems incredibly coincidental to me that OATs fell substantially prior to this announcement and later retraction. The question that needs to be asked IMO is who knew and how much time will they spend in prison for insider trading?

Again IMO, the French should be looking to get the email records of S&P employees and managers and if S&P won't play ball, European assets should be seized.

This is all decidedly whiffy.

Comments

  • tomterm8
    tomterm8 Posts: 5,892 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Rumors are that SAP got hacked, but these are far from confirmed - in fact, the rumours are from rather dodgy sources.
    “The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.”
    ― P.G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens
  • purch
    purch Posts: 9,865 Forumite
    how much time will they spend in prison for insider trading?

    It'll either be zero years, or zero months.

    One or the other, that's for certain.
    'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'
  • nearlynew
    nearlynew Posts: 3,800 Forumite
    Bunch of lying thieves.
    "The problem with quotes on the internet is that you never know whether they are genuine or not" -
    Albert Einstein
  • i just hate the name they got ..standard...and poor? leaving the rich in peace;)
  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Radsteral wrote: »
    i just hate the name they got ..standard...and poor? leaving the rich in peace;)


    Poor was the name of a couple of early employees. The company was called Poors after them. They later merged with (took over?) Standard Statistics.
  • pqrdef
    pqrdef Posts: 4,552 Forumite
    Shenanigans of all sorts will only become more common as we descend into chaos. Nobody is doing anything to limit the ability of modern markets to create absolute mayhem on a scale never before seen.
    "It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 354.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.4K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 247.3K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 604K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.4K Life & Family
  • 261.5K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.