Hunt for £100m rogue trader after attack on HBOS share price

[sasguru]

Erm, yes it is. It's called insider dealing. Market manipulation isn't legal either.

Are you sure you're not in some trouble here SG?

How is starting rumours insider dealing? Not guilty, m'lud...

[Moscow Mule]

How is starting rumours insider dealing? Not guilty, m'lud...

How is taking a position in a share, then writing about it in your newspaper insider dealing?

Ask Pier Morgan...

[Diver]

It was Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis, I've seen the security video evidence

[AtW]

IMO this would be too hard to enforce. You'd have to ban futures and options as well - basically wiping out a massive percentage of the available trades.

No. It would be trivial. Futures and options do not involve borrowing someone elses shares that don't belong to you in order to manipulate market by selling them en masse and then buying back. This behavior from start is aimed at market manipulation. Enforcement is fairly easy - it's the big boys who manipulate markets most, so you start from those - execs there should become PERSONALLY responsible for this stuff - if any trader under them does it then they get 15-20 years of prison. I'd be okay with capital punishment reinstanted just for those scumbags.

Insiders are already required to plan their share sales in advance - they have to declare them. The same should apply to any big buy/sell, this would "slow" down market and cut off people whose sole purpose is to create panic for 30-45 mins to make their ill gotten gains.

Of course "liquidity" as we know it will disappear, that's fine - if you can't plan 24-48 hours ahead then you should not get involved in the stock market at all, and frankly current "liquidity" as we have it in stock markets seems to me produces more negative effects than positive.

Of course this means a lot of people will be fired in the city because they will no longer be needed to supply "expertise" necessary to play these games, so what? Perhaps those PhDs will do something useful for humanity - try to find drugs for cancer for example.

[DimPrawn]

No. It would be trivial. Futures and options do not involve borrowing someone elses shares that don't belong to you in order to manipulate market by selling them en masse and then buying back. This behavior from start is aimed at market manipulation. Enforcement is fairly easy - it's the big boys who manipulate markets most, so you start from those - execs there should become PERSONALLY responsible for this stuff - if any trader under them does it then they get 15-20 years of prison. I'd be okay with capital punishment reinstanted just for those scumbags.

Insiders are already required to plan their share sales in advance - they have to declare them. The same should apply to any big buy/sell, this would "slow" down market and cut off people whose sole purpose is to create panic for 30-45 mins to make their ill gotten gains.

Of course "liquidity" as we know it will disappear, that's fine - if you can't plan 24-48 hours ahead then you should not get involved in the stock market at all, and frankly current "liquidity" as we have it in stock markets seems to me produces more negative effects than positive.

Of course this means a lot of people will be fired in the city because they will no longer be needed to supply "expertise" necessary to play these games, so what? Perhaps those PhDs will do something useful for humanity - try to find drugs for cancer for example.

Here's an idea.

Rather than spouting bollux here about people making millions through share speculation, why not try working for a living?

[AtW]

Rather than spouting bollux here about people making millions through share speculation, why not try working for a living?

But I am working for living.

[HairyArsedBloke]

... The same should apply to any big buy/sell, this would "slow" down market and cut off people whose sole purpose is to create panic for 30-45 mins to make their ill gotten gains.

Of course "liquidity" as we know it will disappear, that's fine - if you can't plan 24-48 hours ahead then you should not get involved in the stock market at all, and frankly current "liquidity" as we have it in stock markets seems to me produces more negative effects than positive.

Too right liquidity would disappear. Two days notice of intention to sell then another two days notice for the buyer - total madness!

As for 30-45 mins – my record for the shortest time holding a position is six seconds, but that was S & P futures not stocks.

[AtW]

As for 30-45 mins – my record for the shortest time holding a position is six seconds, but that was S & P futures not stocks.

And how this behavior exactly benefits market? With advent of computers speculation in markets raised to a completely new level - level that threatens global economy now so such behavior needs to be curtailed one way or another.

The whole "shorting" thing should not be legally possible at all, just like ridiculous leverages offered for people "to play" - and guess what? It's not a fking computer game. If you want to play computer games then fine, but this "game" affects lives of many people who want to have nothing to do with your games.

These "games" are spilling over the real economy now - to fix it one needs to deal with maybe top 1000 offenders in this area, harshly make an example of them to the future generations.

[Cyberman]

And how this behavior exactly benefits market? With advent of computers speculation in markets raised to a completely new level - level that threatens global economy now so such behavior needs to be curtailed one way or another.

The whole "shorting" thing should not be legally possible at all, just like ridiculous leverages offered for people "to play" - and guess what? It's not a fking computer game. If you want to play computer games then fine, but this "game" affects lives of many people who want to have nothing to do with your games.

These "games" are spilling over the real economy now - to fix it one needs to deal with maybe top 1000 offenders in this area, harshly make an example of them to the future generations.

Hear!! Hear!! Shorting is already illegal in many countries. Banning shorting will add stability to the market and kill much of this damaging share speculation. Companies rely on their capital values when borrowing funds, but shorting reduces these values, causing ability to borrow to dry up, thus putting people out of work.

It's commonsense to me to ban this totally negative activity.

[AtW]

Can any of the local capitalist schweines explain in simple words how exactly "shorting" is good for the market? I take it your only point is that "it's a free market so I do what I want".