The Massive Stock Sell-Off Just Before the S&P Downgrade. (Isn't Insider Trading Illegal?)

[mikey7339]

I normally tend to stay away from these kind of topics let alone post one. But this left me with a really bad taste in my mouth. The entire timing of the S&P Downgrade of the US debt seems completely out of place, or very well played.

There are two elements to this thing that are making me extremely mad, aside from the personal hit my portfolio took. First, two days or so before S&P announces the downgrade a massive stock sell-off starts. Every news outlet reported this was due to economic uncertainty and fears of a double-dip recession. Basically the same thing I've been hearing for about 2 years now whenever the markets take a down turn. To me this seems much more like a few big players got tipped off and decided to protect their investments before S&P 'formally' announced the downgrade.

The second part of this is what is really irking me. For some reason, S&P decides to announce the downgrade on a Friday night, after the NY stock exchange is closed. Meaning any ordinary investor can do nothing with this news. However corporations and banks have an entire weekend figure out how to best leverage themselves when business resumes.

Aren't these types of coincidences that warrant a serious investigation into fraud and insider trading? I would personally like to know who sold off the majority of the stocks in the two days prior to the S&P downgrade. Tho I imagine no one with the authority to investigate this will even bat an eyelash.

 

[FoAmY99]

Pretty much everyone who felt the European Central Bank wasn't going to buy Italian debt. Its all for nothing though that they did in the end. Europe is done. There isn't nearly enough money to bail out everyone and they deserve what their getting. You can't give to those who don't earn

And quite frankly you should be looking at Moody's an Fitch. How can they look us in the eye and say with a straight face that the U.S. debt is AAA? Anyone with a lick of common sense knows that our debt can not be paid off. Congress' debt deal that's supposed to "cut" 2. whatever trillion from the debt over ten years will actually add to the debt because govt. spending will have to go up to pay for all the new crap Obama and the Democrats forced down our throats over those ten years. Everyone says the Tea Party caused all this. No. The tea party simply realizes that we're going to have to make some very painful and unpopular decisions if we want to keep this country going. Tea Party didn't cause the downgrade. More than 3/4 of a century of constant govt. spending to pay for a welfare state did. The Tea Party just sees the writing on the wall, and the only people saying the Tea Party are a bunch of evil fascists are those who are on the govt. teat or have some stake in keeping all these people essentially enslaved to the welfare system.

 

[Jodah]

Depends if they actually had inside information that it was going to happen or just more knowledge then the average Joe in this particular area. They likely understand how this type of thing plays out better than you do and figured something bad was going to come.

And the second thing happens all the time. Most major announcements are done after closing to give everyone time to hear about it before the feces hits the spinning blades.