Opções De Negociação 911

Havia uma negociação muito alta em quotput optionsquot na American Airline e United Airlines, imediatamente antes do 911. Estes eram efetivamente gamble que os preços de suas ações caíssem, o que, claro, é o que aconteceu uma vez que os ataques ocorreram. Isso mostra que os comerciantes devem ter conhecimento avançado do 911. Esta é uma história complexa, mas as reivindicações que don8217t sempre combinam a realidade. Embora haja altos volumes negociados nestes dias, por exemplo, eles não foram tão excepcionalmente altos como alguns sites gostam de reivindicar. Aqui, uma análise. Havia muito bons motivos para vender ações da American Airlines, também, porque eles anunciaram uma série de más notícias. Leia mais aqui. As ações da United Airlines também caíram no preço. Se os investidores antecipassem que estavam prestes a lançar resultados ruins, então suas opções de venda também valem a pena comprar (embora tenha em mente que a UAL colocou os volumes mais baixos do ano). Aqui, nossos pensamentos. Algumas referem-se a histórias como a 8220, milhões de milhões anunciados pela UAL, que colocam uma explicação sinistra, mas discordamos. Porquê, por que? Houve muitas conversas sobre potenciais negócios de informações privilegiadas em outros estoques, também. Não fomos pesquisados ​​em profundidade, mas vale a pena ressaltar que algumas pessoas acreditam que as reivindicações foram exageradas. O que sobre a maioria das opções que estão sendo colocadas através de um banco ligado à CIA, não está convencido. O Relatório da Comissão 911 menciona esta questão em suas notas ao Capítulo 5: quot Um único investidor institucional com sede nos Estados Unidos, sem vínculos concebíveis com a Al Qaeda comprou 95 por cento da UAL coloca em 6 de setembro como parte de uma estratégia de negociação que também incluiu a compra de 115.000 ações Da América em 10 de setembro. Da mesma forma, grande parte da negociação aparentemente suspeita na América em 10 de setembro foi rastreada para um boletim informativo específico de negociação de opções nos Estados Unidos, enviado por fax para seus assinantes no domingo 9 de setembro, o que recomendou esses negócios. Talvez o desafio mais forte para esta conclusão venha do Professor Allen M Poteshman da Universidade de Illinois em Urbana-Champaign. Ele decidiu investigar isso ainda mais, analisando dados de mercado estatisticamente para tentar avaliar o significado comercial. O professor Poteshman aponta vários motivos para questionar o argumento de conhecimento prévio: apesar das opiniões expressadas pelos meios de comunicação populares, acadêmicos e profissionais do mercado de opções, há razões para questionar a determinação da evidência de que os terroristas negociaram no mercado de opções antes de setembro 11 ataques. Um evento que coloca dúvidas sobre a evidência é o acidente de um avião da American Airlines em Nova York em 12 de novembro. De acordo com o site da OCC, três dias de negociação antes, em 7 de novembro, o índice de colocação de opções sobre ações AMR Era 7.74. Com base nas declarações feitas sobre os vínculos entre a atividade de mercado de opção e o terrorismo pouco depois de 11 de setembro, teria sido tentador inferir a partir desta relação de colocação que o terrorismo provavelmente foi a causa do acidente de 12 de novembro. Posteriormente, no entanto, o terrorismo foi excluído. Embora possa ser o caso de uma proporção anormalmente grande de RLM de AMR ter sido observada por acaso no dia 7 de novembro, esse evento certamente levanta a questão de saber se os rácios de apalpamentos tão grandes como 7,74 são, na verdade, incomuns. Além do acidente de avião do 12 de novembro, um artigo publicado em Barron8217 em 8 de outubro (Arvedlund 2001) oferece vários motivos adicionais para ser cético sobre as afirmações de que é provável que terroristas ou seus associados trocam opções de AMR e UAL antes dos ataques de 11 de setembro. Para iniciantes, o artigo observa que a negociação mais pesada das opções AMR não ocorreu nas posições mais baratas e mais curtas, o que teria proporcionado os maiores lucros para alguém que conhecesse os próximos ataques. Além disso, um analista emitiu uma recomendação 8220sell8221 sobre AMR durante a semana anterior, o que pode ter levado os investidores a comprar AMR coloca. Da mesma forma, o preço das ações da UAL recentemente declinou o suficiente para se referir a comerciantes técnicos que podem ter aumentado suas compras em compra, e as opções UAL são fortemente negociadas por instituições que cobrem suas posições de ações. Finalmente, os comerciantes que fazem mercados nas opções não aumentaram o preço de venda no momento em que as encomendas chegaram, como se houvesse se acreditassem que as ordens eram baseadas em informações adversas não públicas: os fabricantes de mercado não pareciam achar que a negociação estava fora Do comum no momento em que ocorreu. Business. uiuc. edupoteshmaresearchpoteshman2006.pdf No entanto, ele desenvolve um modelo estatístico, o que ele sugere é consistente com a presciência após tudo: VI. Negociadores de opções de conclusão, gerentes corporativos, analistas de segurança, funcionários de câmbio, reguladores, promotores, decisores políticos e 8212 vezes8212. O público em geral tem interesse em saber se a negociação de opções incomum ocorreu em torno de determinados eventos. Um dos principais exemplos desse evento são os ataques terroristas de 11 de setembro, e houve realmente uma grande especulação sobre se a atividade de mercado de opções indicava que os terroristas ou seus associados trocaram nos dias que antecederam o 11 de setembro sobre o conhecimento prévio do Ataques iminentes. Esta especulação, no entanto, ocorreu na ausência de uma compreensão das características relevantes da negociação do mercado de opções. Este artigo começa por desenvolver informações sistemáticas sobre a distribuição da atividade de mercado de opções. Ele constrói distribuições de referência para estatísticas de volume de mercado de opções que medem de maneiras diferentes até que ponto o volume do fabricante de mercado não -8211 estabelece posições de mercado de opção que serão rentáveis ​​se o preço da ação subjacente aumentar ou diminuir em valor. As distribuições dessas estatísticas são calculadas incondicionalmente e ao condicionar o nível geral de atividade de opção no estoque subjacente, o volume de retorno e negociação sobre o estoque subjacente eo retorno sobre o mercado global. Essas distribuições são usadas para julgar se a negociação do mercado de opções no AMR, UAL, o índice da linha aérea Standard e Poor8217s e o índice de mercado SampP 500 nos dias que antecederam o 11 de setembro foi, de fato, incomum. Os índices de volume de mercado de opções considerados não fornecem evidência de negociação de mercado de opção incomum nos dias que precederam o 11 de setembro. Os índices de volume, no entanto, são construídos a partir de volume de venda longo e curto e volume de chamadas longo e curto, simplesmente comprando itens teriam Foi o caminho mais direto para alguém ter trocado no mercado de opções pela presciência dos ataques. Também foi examinada uma medida do volume anormal de longo volume e visto níveis anormalmente elevados nos dias que antecederam os ataques. Consequentemente, o artigo conclui que há evidências de atividade de mercado de opção incomum nos dias que antecederam o 11 de setembro, que é consistente com os investidores negociando no conhecimento prévio dos ataques. Business. uiuc. edupoteshmaresearchpoteshman2006.pdf Uma questão que nos preocupa sobre isso é a falta de análise da série de más notícias entregues pela American Airlines em 7 de setembro, o dia de negociação antes do dia 10 de setembro, quando ocorreu a negociação mais significativa. O professor Poteshman nos contou por e-mail: meu estudo inclui regressões quantile que explicam as condições do mercado em ações específicas. Portanto, há pelo menos uma correção de primeira ordem para a notícia negativa que estava sendo lançada em 7 de setembro na AMR. Mas você pode realmente tratar a notícia, então simplesmente o professor Paul Zarembka apoia as afirmações, dizendo: Poteshman encontra. Essas compras de opções no estoque da American Airline. Tinha apenas 1% de probabilidade de ocorrer de forma aleatória. Patriotsquestion911professors. html Mas não estamos dizendo que eles eram aleatórios, e sim que eles podem ter sido uma resposta racional a más notícias significativas entregues no dia anterior. Poteshman está dizendo essencialmente (no que diz respeito à AMR) que as pessoas compraram demais para isso serem explicadas pelas 97 notícias, portanto, é necessária outra explicação, mas como você pode dizer isso sem analisar a notícia em si. Afinal, se essa notícia Tinha sido 8220we8217ll provavelmente falido em seis meses8221, então os rácios de colocação provavelmente teriam sido ainda mais significativos, e o modelo de Poteshman8217s proporcionou ainda mais confirmação de uma atividade de mercado de opções não convencional8221, mas isso teria feito a idéia de presciência mais provável. Nós não pensamos assim. Obviamente, as notícias da AMR eram menos significativas, mas ainda dizemos que você não pode julgar com precisão o significado desses negócios até que você tome em consideração. Outra complicação aqui vem no fato de que os volumes colocados nessas ações eram normalmente baixos, a partir do que lemos, e isso, obviamente, facilita a aparência de espinhos. A Comissão do 911 disse: Um único investidor institucional com sede nos Estados Unidos, sem vínculos concebíveis com a Al Qaeda, comprou 95% da UAL em 6 de setembro como parte de uma estratégia de negociação que também incluiu a compra de 115 mil ações americanas em 10 de setembro. Da negociação aparentemente suspeita na América em 10 de setembro foi atribuída a um boletim informativo específico de negociação de opções com base nos EUA, enviado por fax para seus assinantes no domingo 9 de setembro, o que recomendava essas negociações. O 6 de setembro, as posições UAL apareceriam automaticamente significativas, então, mesmo que apenas um investidor estivesse supostamente atrás delas. Mas isso realmente significa que você pode indicar matematicamente que é difícil que o investidor tenha conhecimento prévio do 911, sem considerar as outras condições de mercado e informações disponíveis no momento. E isso é uma história semelhante com os negócios da AMR. Os boletins informativos e os tipsters de ofertas oferecem espinhas na negociação todos os dias, pelo menos aqui no Reino Unido. Houve notícia ruim na sexta-feira que pode justificar o boletim informativo sugerindo que as pecas sejam compradas (e se essa notícia tivesse vazado ou tenha sido suspeitada antes da liberação, então você também pode ter uma explicação para compras anteriores). O professor Poteshman parece dizer que os comerciantes eram mais pessimistas quanto ao futuro da AMR do que deveriam ter sido, que reagiram demais para as notícias e compraram mais pedaços do que esperava, mas talvez suas estatísticas se baseassem principalmente em negócios Decisões individuais (uma instituição ou particular decide comprar algumas put). Os boletins informativos sempre são assim. Muitos são comprados por pessoas que fazem pouca pesquisa, e seguem as recomendações fornecidas. Portanto, se o autor do boletim disser que 8220buy coloca8221, então, o que muitos deles fará, e quanto maior a circulação do boletim, maior será o pico resultante de 8220 negócios normais8221. De qualquer maneira, Screw Loose Change levantou uma ou duas questões semelhantes que você pode querer considerar. E por favor don8217t terminar aqui: vá ler o documento Poteshman8217s. Apenas para avaliar isso por você mesmo. Se você não for ótimo nas estatísticas, alguns deles tornarão seus olhos espreitadíssimos, garantidos, mas também há comentários interessantes que são acessíveis a todos, então, em geral, isso vale a pena ler. Mrz 20, 2012 Comentário de desativação fr Insider trading 911 8230 Os fatos descobertos ANSI ASIA TIMES ONLINE EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION: Não pode haver disputa que o comércio especulativo em opções de venda 8211, onde uma festa aposta que um estoque cairá abruptamente em valor 8211 aumentado nos dias em torno de 11 de setembro de 2001, 8211, mesmo que os EUA Securities and Exchange Commission e a Comissão 911 não o dirão. Mais do que algumas pessoas devem ter tido um aviso prévio dos ataques terroristas, e eles ganharam dinheiro com milhões de dólares. O seguinte artigo foi publicado primeiro na Asia Times Online sob: Existe alguma verdade nas alegações de que os círculos informados fizeram lucros substanciais nos mercados financeiros em conexão com os ataques terroristas de 11 de setembro de 2001, nos Estados Unidos. Provavelmente, o melhor lugar Começar é examinando as opções de venda, que ocorreram em torno de terça-feira, 11 de setembro de 2001, em uma extensão anormal e, no início, através de um software que desempenhou um papel fundamental: o Sistema de Informações de Gerenciamento do Procurador82, abreviado como PROMIS. I PROMIS é um programa de software que parece estar equipado com quase 8222 magical8220 habilidades. Além disso, é objeto de uma disputa de décadas entre seu inventor, Bill Hamilton e várias instituições de pessoas associadas a agências de inteligência, empresas militares e de consultoria de segurança. 1 Um dos 8222magical8220 recursos do PROMIS, é preciso assumir, é que ele está equipado com inteligência artificial e, aparentemente, desde logo foi capaz de ler e integrar simultaneamente qualquer número de diferentes programas de computador ou bancos de dados, independentemente do idioma em que o Os programas originais haviam sido escritos ou os sistemas operacionais e as plataformas em que esse banco de dados estava atualmente instalado.8220 2 E então, torna-se realmente interessante: o que você faria se possuísseis software que pudesse pensar, compreender todas as principais linguas do mundo, que Forneceu pisões em todos os computadores do mundo 8222, quartos que colocam dados em computadores sem o conhecimento das pessoas, que poderiam preencher espaços em branco além do raciocínio humano, e também prever o que as pessoas fazem antes de fazê-lo. Você provavelmente usaria isso, não precisaria você 3 Concedido, essas capacidades soam pouco credíveis. De fato, toda a história do PROMIS, que Mike Ruppert desenvolve no decorrer de seu livro Crossing the Rubicon em todas as suas facetas e voltas bizarras, parece que alguém desenvolveu uma novela no estilo de Philip K Dick e William Gibson. No entanto, o que a Ruppert coletou sobre o PROMIS baseia-se em fontes respeitáveis, bem como nos resultados das investigações pessoais, que aguardam um júri para ter um primeiro olhar crítico. Isso parece ser mais urgente se você adicionar aos recursos PROMIS 8222 que foi dado que o PROMIS foi usado para uma ampla variedade de propósitos pelas agências de inteligência, incluindo o monitoramento em tempo real de transações de estoque em todos os principais mercados financeiros mundiais8220. 4 Estamos, portanto, lidando com um software que a) Infiltra sistemas de comunicação e computador sem ser notado. B) Pode manipular dados. C) É capaz de rastrear o comércio global do mercado de ações em tempo real. O ponto c é relevante para tudo o que aconteceu em conexão com as transações nunca completamente esclarecidas que ocorreram antes dos 11 de setembro, e do qual o ex-presidente do Deutsche Bundesbank Ernst Weltke disse que 8222 não poderia ter sido planejado e realizado sem um certo conhecimento8220 . 6 Perguntei especificamente ao jornalista financeiro Max Keizer, que durante anos trabalhava em Wall Street como comerciante de ações e opções, sobre as operações de opção de venda. Keizer apontou neste contexto que ele falou com muitos corretores nas torres do World Trade Center naquela época. Eu ouvi de primeira mão sobre a companhia aérea trocar de corretores em Cantor Fitzgerald dias antes.8220 Ele então falou comigo sobre uma questão explosiva, na qual Ruppert elaborou detalhadamente em Crossing the Rubicon. Max Keizer: Existem muitos aspectos relativos a essas compras de opções que ainda não foram divulgadas. Eu também trabalhei no Alex Brown amp Sons (ABS). O Deutsche Bank comprou Alex Brown amp Sons em 1999. Quando os ataques ocorreram, o ABS era propriedade do Deutsche Bank. Uma pessoa importante no ABS foi Buzzy Krongard. Eu o conheci várias vezes nos escritórios em Baltimore. Krongard transferiu para se tornar diretor executivo na CIA. As compras de opções, nas quais o ABS foi envolvido, ocorreram nos escritórios do ABS em Baltimore. O ruído que ocorreu entre Baltimore, Nova York e Langley foi interessante, como você pode imaginar, para dizer o mínimo. Em consideração, aqui está o fato de que Alex Brown, uma subsidiária do Deutsche Bank (onde muitos dos supostos invasores do 911 manusearam suas transações bancárias 8211, por exemplo, Mohammed Atta) negociaram compras de opções de venda maciças na United Airlines Company UAL através da Chicago Option Option Option CBOE) 8211 8222 para o constrangimento dos investigadores8220, como o jornal britânico The Independent informou. 7 Em 12 de setembro, o presidente do conselho do Deutsche Bank Alex Brown, Mayo A Shattuck III, de repente e silenciosamente renunciou à sua postagem, embora ele ainda tivesse um contrato de três anos com um salário anual de vários milhões de dólares. Pode-se perceber isso de alguma forma estranho. Poucas semanas depois, o porta-voz da Agência Central de Inteligência (CIA) naquela época, Tom Crispell, recusou todos os comentários, quando foi contactado para um relatório do site Rupperts From Wilderness e perguntou-se 8222 se o Departamento do Tesouro ou O Bureau Federal de Investigação do FBI questionou o diretor-executivo da CIA e o ex-CEO executivo do Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown, AB 8218Buzzy8216 Krongard, sobre o monitoramento da CIA dos mercados financeiros usando o PROMIS e sua posição anterior como supervisor das relações 8282 do cliente privado 8282 de Brown8217.8 Justo antes Ele foi recrutado pessoalmente pelo ex-chefe da CIA George Tenet para a CIA, Krongard supervisionou principalmente o banco de clientes privados da Alex Brown. 9 Em qualquer caso, após o 911 no primeiro dia de negociação, quando os mercados de ações dos EUA estavam abertos novamente, o preço das ações da UAL diminuiu em 43. (As quatro aeronaves seqüestradas em 11 de setembro foram American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77 e UAL vôos 175 e 93.) Com seus antecedentes como ex-comerciante de opções, Keizer me explicou uma questão importante a esse respeito. Max Keizer: as opções de colocação são, se forem empregadas em um comércio especulativo, basicamente apostas que os preços das ações cairão abruptamente. O comprador, que insere um contrato específico do tempo com um vendedor, não tem que possuir o estoque no momento em que o contrato é adquirido. Relativamente à questão da compra de informações privilegiadas através de opções (colocar ou ligar), também há uma definição notável dos economistas suíços Remo Crameri, Marc Chesney e Loriano Mancini, notavelmente que uma troca de opções pode ser identificada como informada 8220, mas ainda não (legalmente ) Provado 8211 8222 quando se caracteriza por um grande aumento incomum em interesse e volume aberto, induz grandes ganhos e não está coberto no mercado de ações8220. 10 Os juros abertos descrevem os contratos que não foram resolvidos (foram exercidos) até o final da sessão de negociação, mas ainda estão abertos. Não coberto no mercado de ações significa que o comprador de uma opção (colocada ou chamada) não detém ações do ativo subjacente, pelo qual ele pode mitigar ou compensar perdas se seu comércio não funcionar, ou redigido de forma diferente: um faz Não é hedge, porque é desnecessário, uma vez que se sabe que a aposta é uma, o perdão, 8222 uma coisa segura de morte.8220 (A este respeito, não é, portanto, uma aposta, porque o resultado não é incerto, mas uma conclusão inevitável.) Em Este caso, o veículo do cálculo foi 8222 opções de venda baratas que dão ao detentor o right8216 por um período de tempo para vender certas ações a um preço muito inferior ao atual preço de mercado 8211, que é uma aposta altamente arriscada, porque você perde Dinheiro se, no vencimento, o preço do mercado ainda for superior ao preço acordado na opção. No entanto, quando essas ações caíram muito mais profundamente após os ataques terroristas, essas opções multiplicaram seu valor várias centenas de vezes, porque agora o preço de venda especificado na opção era muito maior do que o preço de mercado. Esses jogos arriscados com opções curtas são uma indicação certa para os investidores que sabiam que dentro de alguns dias aconteceria algo que reduziria drasticamente o preço de mercado dessas ações.8220 11 Software, como o PROMIS, por sua vez, é usado com a intenção precisa de monitorar o Mercados de ações em tempo real para acompanhar os movimentos de preços que parecem suspeitos. Portanto, os serviços de inteligência dos EUA devem ter recebido avisos claros do singular, transações visíveis antes de 911. De grande importância em relação à faixa, o que deve levar os perpetradores se você estava pensando seriamente em persegui-los, é isso : Max Keizer: A Options Clearing Corporation tem o dever de lidar com as transações, e sim anonimamente 8211, enquanto o banco que executa a transação como intermediário pode determinar a identidade de ambas as partes. Mas isso pode ter sido apenas a intenção das autoridades reguladoras quando a pista levou, entre outros, a Alvin Bernard 8222Buzzy8220 Krongard, Alex Brown amp Sons e a CIA. Ruppert, no entanto, descreve este caso em Crossing the Rubicon em toda a extensão, tanto quanto possível. 12 Além disso, também há maneiras e meios para os iniciados veicular suas faixas. A fim de ser menos óbvio, os insiders poderiam trocar pequenos números de contratos. Estes poderiam ser negociados em várias contas para evitar chamar a atenção para grandes volumes de negociação passando por uma única conta grande. Eles também podem trocar pequenos volumes em cada contrato, mas negociar mais contratos para evitar chamar a atenção. À medida que o interesse aberto aumenta, os não-iniciantes podem detectar um sinal percebido e aumentar sua atividade comercial. Insiders podem então voltar a entrar em mais transações com base em um sinal comercial aparentemente significativo do mercado. A este respeito, seria difícil para o CBOE divulgar os insiders dos não-iniciados, porque ambos estão negociando pesadamente.8220 13 O assunto que precisa de esclarecimentos aqui é geralmente julgado pela Keizer da seguinte maneira: Max Keizer: Meu pensamento é Que muitos (nem todos) daqueles que morreram em 911 eram mercenários financeiros e devemos sentir o mesmo sobre eles como nos sentimos sobre todos os mercenários que são mortos. A tragédia é que essas empresas misturaram civis com mercenários e que também foram mortos. Assim, as empresas em Wall Street usaram civis como escudos humanos. De acordo com um relatório da Bloomberg publicado no início de outubro de 2001, a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) iniciou uma pesquisa em certas transações no mercado de ações em torno de 911 que incluíram 38 empresas, entre elas : American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corp. American Express Corp. American International Group, AXA SA, Bank of America Corp. Bank of New York Corp Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Morgan Stanley, General Motors e Raytheon. 14 Até agora, tão bom. No mesmo mês, no entanto, o jornal San Francisco Chronicle informou que a SEC tomou o passo sem precedentes para deputar centenas, senão milhares de principais interessados ​​no setor privado para sua investigação. Em uma declaração que foi enviada para quase todas as empresas listadas nos EUA, a SEC solicitou às empresas endereçadas que atribuíssem pessoal sênior para a investigação, que estariam cientes da natureza sensível8220 do caso e poderiam ser invocados para exercer uma discrição apropriada8220. 15 Em essência, tratava-se de controlar a informação, não sobre a provisão e divulgação de fatos. Esse curso de ação envolve consequências comprometedoras. Ruppert: O que acontece quando você deputa alguém em uma investigação de segurança nacional ou criminal é que você torna ilegal que eles divulguem publicamente o que eles conhecem. Jogada inteligente. Com efeito, eles se tornam agentes do governo e são controlados por regulamentos governamentais em vez de sua própria consciência. Na verdade, eles podem ser jogados na prisão sem uma audiência se eles falam publicamente. Eu vi isso implicar uma ameaça, uma vez por vez, com pesquisadores federais, agentes de inteligência e até membros do Congresso dos Estados Unidos, que estão tão firmemente presos por sigilo e acordos que nem sequer conseguem divulgar atividades criminosas dentro do governo por medo do encarceramento . 16 Entre os relatórios sobre suspeita de abuso de informações, que são mencionados em Crossing the Rubicon From the Wilderness, é uma lista que foi publicada no título 8222. Terça-feira: o World8217s é o maior Insider Trading Scam8220 pelo Instituto Israelita de Políticas Internacionais Herzliyya para Contra-Terrorismo em 21 de setembro de 2001 : Entre 6 e 7 de setembro, o CBOE viu compras de 4.744 opções de venda na United Airlines, mas apenas 396 opções de compra. Supondo que 4.000 das opções foram compradas por pessoas com conhecimento prévio dos ataques iminentes, esses 8222insiders8220 teriam lucrado quase 5 milhões. Em 10 de setembro, 4.516 opções de venda da American Airlines foram compradas na bolsa de Chicago, em comparação com apenas 748 chamadas. Mais uma vez, não havia notícias nesse momento para justificar esse desequilíbrio novamente, assumindo que 4.000 desses negócios de opções representam 8222insiders8220, representariam um ganho de cerca de 4 milhões. Os níveis de opções de compra comprados acima foram mais de seis vezes maiores do que o normal. Nenhuma negociação similar em outras companhias aéreas ocorreu na bolsa de Chicago nos dias imediatamente anteriores a terça-feira negra. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter amp Co, que ocupou 22 andares do World Trade Center, viu 2.115 de suas opções de compra de outubro compradas nos três dias de negociação antes da terça-feira negra, compara-se com uma média de 27 contratos por dia antes de 6 de setembro. Morgan Stanley8217s O preço da ação caiu de 48.90 para 42.50 após os ataques. Supondo que 2.000 desses contratos de opções foram comprados com base no conhecimento dos ataques que se aproximavam, seus compradores poderiam ter lucrado em pelo menos 1,2 milhão. Merrill Lynch amp Co, com sede perto das Torres Gêmeas, viu 12,215 de outubro as opções de opções de compra compradas nos quatro dias de negociação antes dos ataques, o volume médio anterior dessas ações tinha sido de 252 contratos por dia (um aumento de 1200). Quando a negociação foi retomada, as ações do Merrill8217s caíram de 46,88 para 41,50, supondo que 11 mil contratos de opção foram comprados por 8222insiders8220, seu lucro teria sido cerca de 5,5 milhões. Reguladores europeus estão examinando negócios na Alemanha. Os Reis suíços de Munique reúnem-se em Munique Reis de Munique, 12717 e AXA da França, todos os principais resseguradores com exposição ao desastre da terça-feira negra. (Nota: AXA também possui mais de 25 ações da American Airlines, fazendo com que os ataques um 8222double whammy8220 para eles.) 17 Sobre as declarações do ex-presidente do Deutsche Bundesbank Ernst Welteke, seu conteúdo em vários relatórios de imprensa juntos é o seguinte : O presidente do banco central alemão, Ernst Welteke, mais tarde, informa que um estudo de seu banco indica, 8222. Há sinais cada vez mais claros de que houve atividades nos mercados financeiros internacionais que devem ter sido realizadas com o conhecimento especializado necessário, 8220 não apenas em ações de forte impacto Indústrias como companhias aéreas e companhias de seguros, mas também em ouro e petróleo. Daily Telegraph, 9232001 Seus pesquisadores encontraram 8222 provas quase irrefutáveis ​​de insider trading8220. Miami Herald, 9242001 8222Se você olhar para os movimentos em mercados antes e depois do ataque, ele faz o sulco da frente. Mas é extremamente difícil verificar realmente isso.8220 No entanto, ele acredita que 8222 em um ou outro caso, será possível identificar a fonte8220. Fox News, 9222001 Welteke relata 8222a, basicamente inexplicável, aumentou 8220 nos preços do petróleo antes dos ataques Miami Herald, 9242001 e, em seguida, um aumento adicional de 13% no dia seguinte aos ataques. O ouro aumenta sem parar por dias após os ataques. Daily Telegraph, 9232001 18 Em relação a essas observações, enviei uma solicitação por e-mail para o escritório de imprensa do Deutsche Bundesbank em 1º de agosto de 2011, da qual eu esperava aprender: como o Bundesbank lidava com essa informação? As agências federais pedem para ver o estudo Com quem o Bundesbank compartilhou esta informação e, adicionalmente: 1. Você pode confirmar que existe um estudo sobre o Bundesbank relativo a 911 insider trading, que foi realizado em setembro de 2001 2. Se sim: o que É o título 3. Se sim: quem foram os autores 4. Se sim: o estudo já foi disponibilizado ao público Em 2 de agosto, fiquei informado: 8222Este e-mail foi recebido por nós e está sendo processado sob o número 2011 011551.8220 Em última análise, no entanto, o escritório de imprensa do Deutsche Bundesbank só estava disponível para uma explicação oral no telefone. Com esta explicação, voltei para o escritório de imprensa do regulador financeiro federal na Alemanha, o Bundesanstalt fur Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin, com o seguinte e-mail 8211 e por razões óbvias: ontem, enviei um pedido (veja o final de Este e-mail) para o escritório de imprensa do Deutsche Bundesbank relativo a insider trading ligado aos ataques terroristas em 11 de setembro de 2001 e, respectivamente, relativo a um suposto estudo realizado pelo Deutsche Bundesbank. O pedido contém o número de referência 2011 011551. O escritório de imprensa ou, respectivamente, Peter Trautmann só estava disponível para uma explicação oral. Eu repito isso agora, porque está relacionado à sua entidade. Isto será seguido por minhas perguntas adicionais. De acordo com uma explicação oral do escritório de imprensa do Deutsche Bundesbank, nunca houve um estudo detalhado e oficial sobre insider trading do Bundesbank. Em vez disso, provavelmente houve análise ad hoc com cartas correspondentes de movimentos de preços como briefings para o conselho do Bundesbank. Além disso, teria sido dever do Bundesfinanzaufsicht investigar este assunto. O escritório de imprensa do Bundesbank também não estava disposto a divulgar nenhuma informação escrita, nem mesmo depois de minha indicação de que este alegado estudo do Bundesbank flutuava na Internet há anos sem qualquer contradição. Essa foi a informação oral do escritório de imprensa do Bundesbank, ou, respectivamente, de Peter Trautmann. Agora, minhas perguntas para você: 1. O BaFin já investigou o intercâmbio de informações do 911 2. Com qual resultado Os resultados foram divulgados 3. Não houve motivos para suspeitar que teria justificado uma investigação, por exemplo, como empresa danificada : Munich Re e como compradores de opções de venda da UAL8217s United Airlines Company: Deutsche BankAlex Brown 4. O Deutsche Bundesbank perguntou com a BaFin quais as informações que eles têm sobre o 911 insider trading 8211, por exemplo, para a criação de análises ad hoc para O Bundesbank 5. As agências federais dos EUA já perguntaram se o BaFin poderia cooperar com eles em uma investigação. Poderia me responder por escrito, ao contrário do Deutsche Bundesbank, por favor, eu ficaria muito grato por isso. No dia seguinte eu realmente recebi uma E-mail sobre este assunto de Anja Engelland, assessora de imprensa da BaFin, na qual ela respondeu às minhas perguntas da seguinte forma: 1. Sim, o ex-Bundesaufsichtsamt fur Wertpapierhandel, BAWe ( Supervisão federal para negociação de valores mobiliários), realizou uma análise abrangente das operações. 2. Como resultado, nenhuma evidência de abuso de informações foi encontrada. Their approach and results have been published by the BAWe or BaFin in the annual reports for the years 2001 (cf S 2627) and 2002 (cf p 156 above first paragraph). Here are the links. See here and here . 3. See annual reports 2001 and 2002. Put options on United Airlines were not traded on German stock exchanges (the first EUREX options on US equities were introduced only after the attacks on 9112001) there were warrants on UAL and other US stocks, but those traded only in low volumes. 4. I personally do not know about such a request. Furthermore, the Bundesbank itself would have to comment on this. 5. BaFin is fundamentally entitled to the exchange of information with foreign supervisory authorities, like SEC, on the basis of written agreements, so-called memoranda of understanding (MoU). Regarding potential inquiries from foreign supervisory authorities, the BaFin can unfortunately not comment, this would be a matter of respective authority. For this I ask for understanding. Then I wrote another brief note to BaFin, 8222in order to prevent any misunderstanding: your answers refers, as far as I understand, solely to the financial markets in Germany and Frankfurt, or not8220 The reply from BaFin: The answers refer to the German financial market as a whole and not only on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In terms of the assessment of foreign financial markets, the relevant authorities are the competent points of contact. In my inquiries, I mentioned, among other things, a scientific study by US economist Allen M Poteshman from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which had been carried out in 2006 regarding the put option trading around 911 related to the two airlines involved, United Airlines and American Airlines. Poteshman came to this conclusion: 8222Examination of the option trading leading up to September 11 reveals that there was an unusually high level of put buying. This finding is consistent with informed investors having traded options in advance of the attacks.8220 19 Another scientific study was conducted by the economists Wong Wing-Keung (Hong Kong Baptist University, HKBU), Howard E Thompson (University of Wisconsin) and Kweehong Teh (National University of Singapore, NUS), whose findings were published in April 2010 under the title 8222Was there Abnormal Trading in the SampP 500 Index Options Prior to the September 11 Attacks8220 Motivated by the fact that there had been many media reports about possible insider trading prior to 911 in the option markets, the authors looked in this study at the Standard amp Poor8217s 500 Index (SPX Index Options), in particular with a focus on strategies emanating from a bear market, namely those under the labels 8222Put Purchase,8220 8222Put Bear Spread8220 and 8222Naked ITM Call Write8220, as each of these are in accordance with the assumption that one would be betting on a general bear market if one want ed to profit in anticipation of the 911 event. 20 Along these lines, the authors refer to an article which Erin E Arvedlund published on October 8, 2001, in Barron8217s, the heading of which suggested precisely that thesis: 8222Follow the money: Terror plotters could have benefited more from the fall of the entire market than from individual stocks.8220 21 Basically, Wong, Thompson and Teh came to the conclusion 8222that our findings show that there was a significant abnormal increase in the trading volume in the option market just before the 9-11 attacks in contrast with the absence of abnormal trading volume far before the attacks8220. More specifically, they stated, 8222Our findings from the out-of-the-money (OTM), at-the-money (ATM) and in-the-money (ITM) SPX index put options and ITM SPX index call options lead us to reject the null hypotheses that there was no abnormal trading in these contracts before September 11th.8220 Instead, they found evidence for 8222abnormal trading volume in OTM, ATM and ITM SPX index put options8220 for September 2001, and also in 8222ITM-SPX index call options8220 for the same month. 8222In addition, we find that there was evidence of abnormal trading in the September 2001 OTM, ATM and ITM SPX index put options immediately after the 9-11 attacks and before the expiration date. This suggests that owning a put was a valuable investment and those who owned them could sell them for a considerable profit before the expiration date.8220 From all of this, they took the position that whilst they couldn8217t definitively prove that insiders were active in the market, 8222our results provide credible circumstantial evidence to support the insider trading claim8220. 22 Disambiguation: 8222in the money8220 means that the circumstances arise on which the owner of a put option is betting 8211 the market price of the underlying asset, for example a stock (or in this case an index of shares), is lower at that moment compared to the price at the time when the transaction took place. 8222At the money8220 means that the price of the underlying asset has remained equal or nearly equal. And 8222out-of-the-money8220 means that the price of the underlying asset has gone up, so the opposite of what the owner of the put option was betting on took place. 8222In the money8220: win. 8222Out of the money8220: loss. There are also ITM, ATM and OTM options both for trading strategies with put and call options, depending on which kind of risk one would like to take. For example, according to Wong, Thomson and Teh, the 8222Put-Purchase Strategy8220 in the case of a downward movement of the underlying asset 8222is a cheaper alternative to short-selling of the underlying asset and it is the simplest way to profit when the price of the underlying asset is expected to decline8220. The use of the OTM put option compared to the ITM put option, however, offers 8222both higher reward and higher risk potentials (8230) if the underlying asset falls substantially in price. However, should the underlying asset decline only moderately in price, the ITM put often proves to be the better choice (8230) because of the relative price differential.8220 That is why speculators would fare best, if they bought ITM put options, 8222unless the speculators would expect a very substantial decline in the price of the underlying asset.8220 23 After they calculated such strategies in the light of the available trading data in the CBOE relating to 911, the three economists ultimately do not accept a possible counter-argument that their results could be attributed to the fact that the stock markets were generally falling and that there had already been a negative market outlook. Finally they pointed out: 8222More conclusive evidence is needed to prove definitively that insiders were indeed active in the market. Although we have discredited the possibility of abnormal volume due to the declining market, such investigative work would still be a very involved exercise in view of the multitude of other confounding factors,8220 such as confusing trading strategies, 8222intentionally employed by the insiders8220 in order to attract less attention. 24 That would be 8211 and if only to invalidate these scientific results once and for all 8211 primarily a task for the SEC, the FBI and other governmental authorities of the United States. However, we will have to wait for this in vain. I think that not less worthy of a mention is an article that the French financial magazine Les Echos published in September 2007 about a study conducted by two independent economics professors from the University of Zurich, Marc Chesney and Loriano Mancini. Journalist Marina Alcaraz summarized the content of the findings in Les Echos with these words and with these explanations by Professor Chesney, which I for the first time translated into German (and do now translate from French into English): 8222The atypical volumes, which are very rare for specific stocks lead to the suspicion of insider trading.8220 Six years after the attacks on the World Trade Center this is the disturbing results of a recent study by Marc Chesney and Loriano Mancini, professors at the University of Zurich. The authors, one of them a specialist in derivative products, the other a specialist in econometrics, worked on the sales options that were used to speculate on the decline in the prices of 20 large American companies, particularly in the aerospace and financial sector. Their analysis refers to the execution of transactions between the 6th and 10th of September 2001 compared to the average volumes, which were collected over a long period (10 years for most of the companies). In addition, the two specialists calculated the probability that different options within the same sector in significant volumes would be traded within a few days. 8222We have tried to see if the movements of specific stocks shortly before the attacks were normal.8220 We show that the movements for certain companies such as American Airlines, United Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citigroup, Marsh amp McLehnan are rare from a statistical point of view, especially when compared to the quantities that have been observed for other assets like Coca-Cola or HP,8220 explains Marc Chesney, a former Professor at the HEC and co-author of Blanchiment et financement du terrorisme ( Money laundering and financing of terrorism ), published by Editions Ellipses. 8222For example 1,535 put option contracts on American Airlines with a strike of 30 and expiry in October 2001 were traded on September 10th, in contrast to a daily average of around 24 contracts over the previous three weeks. The fact that the market was currently in a bear market is not sufficient to explain these surprising volumes.8220 The authors also examined the profitability of the put options and trades for an investor who acquired such a product between the 6th and 10th September. 8222For specific titles, the profits were enormous.8220 8222For example, the investors who acquired put options on Citigroup with an expiry in October 2001 could have made more than 15 million profit,8220 he said. On the basis of the connection of data between volumes and profitability, the two authors conclude that 8222the probability that crimes by Insiders (Insider trading) occurred. is very strong in the cases of American Airlines, United Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan. 8222There is no legal evidence, but these are the results of statistical methods, confirming the signs of irregularities.8220 25 As Alcaraz continued to state for Les Echos, the study by ChesneyMancini about possible insider trading related to the 911 attacks was not the first of its kind but it was in sharp contrast to the findings of the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC and the 911 Commission, since they classified the insider trading as negligible 8211 the trades in question had no connection to 911 and had 8222consistently proved innocuous8220. Different in the assessment is also the scientific work that Chesney and Mancini had published together with Remo Crameri in April 2010 at the University of Zurich, 8222Detecting Informed Trading Activities in the option markets.8220 In the segment that is dedicated to the terror attacks of 911, the three authors come to the conclusion, that there had been notable insider trading shortly before the terrorist attacks on September 11 that was based on prior knowledge. Without elaborating on the detailed explanation of the mathematical and statistical method, which the scientific trio applied during the examination of the put option transactions on the CBOE for the period between 1996 and 2006, I summarize some of their significant conclusions. 8222Companies like American Airlines, United Airlines, Boeing8220 8211 the latter company is a contractor of the two airlines as aircraft manufacturer 8211 8222and to a lesser extent, Delta Air Lines and KLM seem to have been targets for informed trading activities in the period leading up to the attacks. The number of new put options issued during that period is statistically high and the total gains realized by exercising these options amount to more than 16 million. These findings support the results by Poteshman (2006) who also reports unusual activities in the option market before the terrorist attacks.8220 26 In the banking sector, Chesney, Crameri and Mancini found five informed trading activities in connection to 911. 8222For example the number of new put options with underlying stock in Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch issued in the days before the terrorist attacks was at an unusually high level. The realized gains from such trading strategies are around 11 million.8220 27 For both areas, the aviation and the banking sector, the authors state that 8222in nearly all cases the hypothesis8220, that the put options were not hedged, 8222cannot be rejected8220. 28 Regarding the options traded on EUREX, one of the world8217s largest trading places for derivatives, which in 1998 resulted from the merger between the German and Swiss futures exchanges DTB and SOFFEX, Chesney, Mancini and Crameri focused on two reinsurance companies, which incurred costs in terms of billions of dollars in connection with the World Trade Center catastrophe: Munich Re and Swiss Re. On the basis of EUREX trading data provided by Deutsche Bank, the three scientists detected one informed option trade related to Munich Re, which occurred on August 30, 2001. The authors write: 8222The detected put option with underlying Munich Re matured at the end of September 2001 and had a strike of 320 (the underlying asset was traded at 300, 86 on August 30th). That option shows a large increment in open interest of 996 contracts (at 92.2 quintile of its two-year empirical distribution) on August 30th. Its price on that day was 10, 22. 8230 On the day of the terrorist attacks, the underlying stock lost more than 15 (the closing price on September 10th was 261, 88 and on September 11th 220, 53) and the option price jumped to 89, 56, corresponding to a return of 776 in eight trading days. 8230 The gains 8230 related to the exercise of the 996 new put options issued on August 30th correspond to more than 3.4 million.8220 Similar is true, according to the authors, for one informed option trade on Swiss Re on August 20, 2001 with 8222a return of 4,050 in three trading weeks8220, or 8222more than 8 million.8220 29 In a new version of their study that was published on September 7, 2011, the authors stuck to their findings from April 2010. They added the emphasis that in no way the profits gained with the put options to which they point could have been achieved due to sheer fortunate coincidence, but that in fact they were based on prior knowledge which had been exploited. 30 With those results in terms of what went on at the EUREX according to Chesney, Crameri and Mancini, I again addressed the BaFin, which had written to me that for the financial centers in Germany insider trading around 911 could be excluded, and asked: How does this go with your information that the federal supervisory for securities trading (BAWe) could in its comprehensive analysis not find evidence for insider trading Do the authors, so to speak, see ghosts with no good reason In addition, I stated: If it is true what Chesney, Crameri and Mancini write, or if you at the BaFin cannot (ad hoc) refute it, would this then cause the BaFin to thoroughly investigate the matter again If the findings of Chesney, Crameri, and Mancini were true, this would constitute illegal transactions relating to a capital crime, which has no status of limitations, or not In case that a need for clarification had arisen at the BaFin, I added Professor Chesney to my e-mail-inquiry in the 8222carbon copy822 0 8211 address field, as because these were the results of his scientific work. The response that I received from BaFin employee Dominika Kula was as follows: As I already told you in my e-mail, the former federal supervisory for securities trading (BAWe) carried out a comprehensive analysis of the operations in 2001. As a result, no evidence of insider trading has been found. For clarification purposes, I wish to point out that violations of statutory provisions of securities or criminal law can never be excluded with absolute certainty. In order to pursue and prosecute such matters concrete evidence of an unlawful act is required 8230 Such evidence does not exist here. With regard to the sources you mentioned, I ask for understanding that I can neither comment on scientific analyses, nor on reviews by third parties. Regarding the statutes of limitations for offences relating to the violation insider trading regulations trading I can give you the following information: A violation of the law to prohibit insider trading is punishable with imprisonment up to 5 years or with fines. The statutes of limitations applied for crimes carrying this kind of penalty (section 78 paragraph 3 No. 4 Penal Code) are five years. These limitations are described in the statutes of limitations ( 78 et seq.) (Criminal Code). In addition, I turned to the EUREX with three questions: 1. How do you as EUREX comment on the findings of Messrs Chesney, Mancini and Crameri 2. Did you at EUREX perceive the particular trading in Munich Re and Swiss Re it in any way as strange 3. Have domestic (eg BAWe and BaFin) or foreign (such as the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission) authorities ever inquired if there may have been evidence of insider trading via the EUREX in connection with the 911 attacks I subsequently received the following response from Heiner Seidel, the deputy head of the press office of the Deutsche Borse in Frankfurt. We do not give you a public written response on behalf of the Deutsche Brse or Eurex regarding the topics of your inquiry. This is for the following reason: the trade monitoring agency (HSt) is part of the Exchange, but it is independent and autonomous. Their investigations are confidential and are carried out in close coordination with the BaFin. They are never public, a request which HSt is therefore not meaningful. I leave it to the reader to draw hisher conclusions from these two replies from the press offices of BaFin and Deutsche Borse. Regarding the topic of option trades related to 911, I once more talked with Swiss historian Dr Daniele Ganser (8222Operation Gladio8220), by asking him this time about the importance of those put options, which were traded shortly before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Daniele Ganser: This is an important point. This is about demonstrating that there was insider trading on the international stock exchanges before 11 September. Specifically put options, ie speculation on falling stock prices were traded. Among the affected stocks were United Airlines and American Airlines, the two airlines involved in the attacks. A colleague of mine, Marc Chesney, professor at the Institute of banking at the University of Zurich, has examined these put options. You first of all have to check if there may have been international speculation that the aviation industry would be experiencing a weak period and whether accordingly also put options on Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss were bought. This was not the case. Very significant put option trades were only transacted for these two airlines involved in the attacks. Secondly, you must examine the ratio of put options to call options and look if they had also been purchased to a similarly significant extent that would constitute speculations on rising stock prices. And that is also not the case. There were only significant put options and only significant transactions for United Airlines and American Airlines. Now you need to look further in order to see who actually bought the put options, because that would be the insider who made millions on September 11. Most people are unaware that money was also earned with the attacks on September 11. The Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, however, does not publish the information on who bought the put options, because you can do this anonymously. It is disturbing that this data is not made public. What you have is the 911 Commission report, and here it is pointed out. that there has been insider trading, but that this insider trading cannot be traced to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, which means that it is highly unlikely that it had been Bin Laden. Question: If this is not pursued any further, what does it mean Daniele Ganser: This means that the investigation of the terrorist attacks was incomplete, and always at the point where there are contradictions to the SURPRISE story, no further investigations are made. It looks very much as if one wants to examine only one story, the investigation is therefore one-sided. But this does not only apply to the put options. 31 Interestingly enough, when Dr Ganser points out in his reply that this important data is not published, it is actually only half of the truth. Why The answer is very simple and odd at the same time: David Callahan, the editor of the US magazine SmartCEO, filed a request to the SEC about the put options which occurred prior to September 11 within the framework of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The SEC informed Callahan in its reply of December 23, 2009 under the number 822209 07659-FOIA8220 as follows: This letter is in response to your request seeking access to and copies of the documentary evidence referred to in footnote 130 of Chapter 5 of the September 11 (911) Commission Report8230 We have been advised that the potentially responsive records have been destroyed. 32 Therefore, we will unfortunately never know exactly how the SEC and the 911 Commission came to their conclusions regarding the 911 put options trading for their final report, because relevant documents were not only held back, but also destroyed 8211 and that in spite of an agreement between the SEC and the National Archive of the United States, in which the SEC has agreed to keep all records for at least 25 years. 33 The 911 Commission report wrote this in footnote 130 of Chapter 5, which briefly focuses on the alleged insider trading: Highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9 11 generally rest on reports of unusual pre-911 trading activity in companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an innocuous explanation. For example, the volume of put options 8211 investments that pay off only when a stock drops in price 8211 surged in the parent companies of United Airlines on September 6 and American Airlines on September 10 8211 highly suspicious trading on its face. Yet, further investigation has revealed that the trading had no connection with 911. A single US-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al-Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10. Similarly, much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific US-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, which recommended these trades. These examples typify the evidence examined by the investigation. The SEC and the FBI, aided by other agencies and the securities industry, devoted enormous resources to investigating this issue, including securing the cooperation of many foreign governments. These investigators have found that the apparently suspicious consistently proved innocuous. (Joseph Cella interview (Sept 16, 2003 May 7, 2004 May 10-11, 2004) FBI briefing (Aug 15, 2003) SEC memo, Division of Enforcement to SEC Chair and Commissioners, 8222Pre-September 11, 2001 Trading Review,8220 May 15, 2002 Ken Breen interview (Apr. 23, 2004) Ed G. interview (Feb. 3, 2004). The author Mark H Gaffney commented on this finding of 8222innocuousness8220: Notice 8230 the commission makes no mention in its footnote of the 36 other companies identified by the SEC in its insider trading probe. What about the pre-911 surge in call options for Raytheon, for instance, or the spike in put options for the behemoth Morgan Stanley, which had offices in WTC 2 The 911 Commission Report offers not one word of explanation about any of this. The truth, we must conclude, is to be found between the lines in the report8217s conspicuous avoidance of the lion8217s share of the insider trading issue. Indeed, if the trading was truly 8222innocuous8220, as the report states, then why did the SEC mu zzle potential whistleblowers by deputizing everyone involved with its investigation The likely answer is that so many players on Wall Street were involved that the SEC could not risk an open process, for fear of exposing the unthinkable. This would explain why the SEC limited the flow of information to those with a 8222need to know8220, which, of course, means that very few participants in the SEC investigation had the full picture. It would also explain why the SEC ultimately named no names. All of which hints at the true and frightening extent of criminal activity on Wall Street in the days and hours before 911. The SEC was like a surgeon who opens a patient on the operating room table to remove a tumor, only to sew him back up again after finding that the cancer has metastasized through the system. At an early stage of its investigation, perhaps before SEC officials were fully aware of the implications, the SEC did recommend that the FBI investigate two suspicious transactions. We know about this thanks to a 911 Commission memorandum declassified in May 2009 which summarizes an August 2003 meeting at which FBI agents briefed the commission on the insider trading issue. The document indicates that the SEC passed the information about the suspicious trading to the FBI on September 21, 2001, just ten days after the 911 attacks. Although the names in both cases are censored from the declassified document, thanks to some nice detective work by Kevin Ryan we know whom (in one case) the SEC was referring to. The identity of the suspicious trader is a stunner that should have become prime-time news on every network, world-wide. Kevin Ryan was able to fill in the blanks because, fortunately, the censor left enough details in the document to identify the suspicious party who, as it turns out, was none other than Wirt Walker III, a distant cousin to then-president G W Bush. Several days before 911, Walker and his wife Sally purchased 56,000 shares of stock in Stratesec, one of the companies that provided security at the World Trade Center up until the day of the attacks. Notably, Stratesec also provided security at Dulles International Airport, where AA 77 took off on 911, and also security for United Airlines, which owned two of the other three allegedly hijacked aircraft. At the time, Walker was a director of Stratesec. Amazingly, Bush8217s brother Marvin was also on the board. Walker8217s investment paid off handsomely, gaining 50,000 in value in a matter of a few days. Given the links to the World Trade Center and the Bush family, the SEC lead should have sparked an intensive FBI investigation. Yet, incredibly, in a mind-boggling example of criminal malfeasance, the FBI concluded that because Walker and his wife had 8222no ties to terrorism 8230 there was no reason to pursue the investigation.8220 The FBI did not conduct a single interview. 34 For this translation, I asked Kevin Ryan via e-mail if he could send me a link for his 8222nice detective work8220. Ryan, who8217s in my humble opinion one of roughly 10 people around the world who have to be taken seriously regarding 911, replied: You are referring to my paper 8222Evidence for Informed Trading on the Attacks of September 11.8220 See here . The following two references from the paper are relevant to what you are describing. 2 911 Commission memorandum entitled 8222FBI Briefing on Trading8220. prepared by Doug Greenburg, 18 August 2003, 22. The 911 Commission memorandum that summarized the FBI investigations refers to the traders involved in the Stratesec purchase. From the references in the document, we can make out that the two people had the same last name and were related. This fits the description of Wirt and Sally Walker, who were known to be stock holders in Stratesec. Additionally, one (Wirt) was a director at the company, a director at a publicly traded company in Oklahoma (Aviation General), and chairman of an investment firm in Washington, DC (Kuwam Corp). Here are two other recent articles on Stratesec and its operators. See here and here . The stock of Stratesec, I should add by myself, increased in value from 0.75 per share on September 11 to 1.49 per share when the market re-opened on September 17. As a firm that provides technology-based security for large commercial and government facilities, Stratesec benefited from the soaring demand of security companies right after 911. It is also remarkable what Ryan wrote to me regarding a company on which he did some research, too: Viisage Corp, another high-tech security firm. Kevin Ryan: In late 2005, George Tenet became a director for Viisage, which had been flagged by the SEC for 911 trading but never investigated. Viisage was led by Roger LaPenta, formerly of Lockheed. Seven months later, in 2006, FBI director Louis Freeh also joined the Viisage board. One might think that when both the CIA director (on 911) and the FBI director (from 1993 to June 2001) joined a company suspected of 911 insider trading, we might want to go back and actually investigate the SEC8217s flagging of that company. But, of course, that was not the case. In 2009, 8222Bandar Bush8220 hired Freeh as his personal attorney. Freeh is nowadays the bankruptcy trustee of the alleged market manipulator MF Global. And about his client, the former Saudi ambassador Prince Bandar, I should add that we know for sure that he bankrolled indirectly via his wife two of the alleged would-be 911 hijackers, Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi. 35 But let8217s get back to the subject of destruction. On September 11, not only human life, aircraft and buildings were destroyed in New York City, but also data on computers and in archives. For example, several federal agencies occupied space in Building 7 of the World Trade Center, including the Securities and Exchange Commission on floors 11 to 13. Those and other data could have given information about the alleged 911 insider trading (though it seems to be very unlikely that no backup existed elsewhere independent of the local computer systems). In fact, some technology companies were commissioned to recover damaged hard disks, which had been recovered from the debris and dust of Ground Zero. One of these companies was the English company group Convar, more precisely: their data rescue center in the German city Pirmasens. Erik Kirschbaum from the news agency Reuters reported in December 2001 that Convar had at that time successfully restored information from 32 computers, supporting 8222suspicions that some of the 911 transactions were illegal8220. 8218The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start,8216 says Convar director Peter Henschel.8220 36 Convar received the costly orders 8211 according to Kirschbaums report the companies had to pay between 20,000 and 30,000 per rescued computer 8211 in particular from credit card companies, because: 8222There was a sharp rise in credit card transactions moving through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers. This could be a criminal enterprise 8211 in which case, did they get advance warning Or was it only a coincidence that more than 100 million was rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded8220 37 The companies for which Convar was active cooperated with the FBI. If the data were reconstructed they should have been passed on to the FBI, and the FBI, according to its statutory mandate, should have initiated further investigation based on the data to find out who carried out these transactions. Henschel was optimistic at the time that the sources for the transactions would come to light. Richard Wagner, a Convar employee, told Kirschbaum that 8222illegal transfers of more than 100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster. 8218There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding 100 million,8216 he says. 8218They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the main frames were destroyed8216.8220 38 Wagner8217s observation that there had been 8222illegal financial transactions shortly before and during the WTC disaster8220 matches an observation which Ruppert describes in Crossing the Rubicon . Ruppert was contacted by an employee of Deutsche Bank, who survived the WTC disaster by leaving the scene when the second aircraft had hit its target. According to the employee, about five minutes before the attack the entire Deutsche Bank computer system had been taken over by something external that no one in the office recognized and every file was downloaded at lightning speed to an unknown location. The employee, afraid for his life, lost many of his friends on September 11, and he was well aware of the role which the Deutsche Bank subsidiary Alex Brown had played in insider trading. 39 I was curious and wanted more information from Convar regarding their work on the WTC-computer hard drives, but also about the statements made by Peter Henschel and Richard Wagner. Thus, I contacted the agency which represents Convar for press matters, with a written request. But their agency 8222ars publicandi8220 informed me swiftly: Due to time constraints, we can currently offer you neither information nor anyone on the part of our client to talk to regarding this requested topic. I also approached KrollOntrack, a very interesting competitor of Convar in writing. Ontrack Data Recovery, which also has subsidiaries in Germany, was purchased in 2002 by Kroll Inc 8211 8222one of the nation8217s most powerful private investigative and security firms, which has long-standing involvement with executive protection US government officials including the president. This would require close liaison with the Secret Service.8220 40 At the time of the 911 attacks, a certain Jerome Hauer was one of the managing directors at Kroll Inc. He had previously established the crisis center for the mayor of New York City as director of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which occupied office space on the 23rd floor of the WTC Building 7. Hauer helped former FBI agent John O8217Neill to get the post of the head of Security Affairs at the WTC, and spent the night of September 11 with O8217Neill in New York before the latter lost his life on September 11 in the WTC. Hauer was most likely involved in the planning of 8222Tripod II8220, the war game exercise at the port of New York City. 41 Therefore, I found it appealing to uncover some more details of this aspect, or, more accurately to find out if Ontrack or KrollOntrack had received an order in 2001 or after to rescue computer hard drives from the WTC. The answer I received from KrollOntrack said: Kroll Ontrack was not at the site of the data recovery 8211 the devices at the Twin Towers have been completely destroyed or vaporized. The firm Kroll was, however, at that time active in the field of computer-forensic investigations, securing devices in the surrounding buildings. In essence, these two inquiries did not help me at all. If anything, a further question arose: why did KrollOntrack send me a response, where it was really obvious that the content did not match the facts After all, I had written in my inquiry that Convar had received orders to restore damaged computer hard drives from the World Trade Center. I sent a new inquiry, attaching a link for Erik Kirschbaum8217s Reuters article and additional cinematic reports on Convar8217s which showed that some of the WTC disks had not been 8222completely destroyed or vaporized8220. I stated to KrollOntrack: 8222Your answer does not seem to match the facts, when it comes to 8218completely destroyed or vaporized8216. Will you still stick to your answer8220 KrollOntrack then replied that their previously given assessment constituted 8222not a statement, but an opinion8220. I do not find this assessment worthless, because it is in line with the knowledge of the general public and can easily be refuted in argumentum in contrario by Convars activities. One film report to which I referred to in my second inquiry to KrollOntrack originated from the German television journal Heute-Journal broadcast on March 11, 2002, on ZDF, and the other from the Dutch TV documentary Zembla, broadcast on September 10, 2006. The ZDF report showed that Convar received the WTC disks from the US Department of Defense and that Convar had managed until March 2002 to recover more than 400 hard drives. It also reported that the private companies that employed Convar had paid between 25,000 and 50,000 per hard drive. In the TV documentary Zembla, Convar essentially maintained its position as it had been reported by Erik Kirschbaum in 2001. Obviously, in connection with 911 there has not only been insider trading via put options, but there is additional evidence that there have been illegal financial transactions via credit cards through which more than 100 million US dollars were removed from the WTC computer systems. Those occurred shortly before and during the WTC disaster. It remains unclear what the FBI did later on with the data recovered by Convar. On the other hand, it may have been not very much, as can be seen from a memorandum from the 911 Commission, which was released in May 2009. The 911 Commission asked the FBI about the use of credit cards for insider dealing. On the basis of the information provided by the FBI, the commission came to the conclusion that no such activity occurred because 8222the assembled agents expressed no knowledge of the reported hard-drive recovery effort or the alleged scheme8220 8211 but above all 8222everything at the WTC was pulverized to near powder, making it extremely unlikely that any hard-drives survived8220. 42 The activities of Convar, however, prove the exact opposite. But it gets even better. According to Zembla, the FBI was directly involved with the data rescue efforts of Convar. And on top of it, the broadcast of Heute-Journal reported that Convar worked in that 8222highly sensitive8220 matter with several federal agencies of the United States government. So there have been ample indications for insider trading based on foreknowledge of the attacks, but there are very few hard facts as Catherine Austin Fitts, a former managing director and member of the board of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon, Read amp Co, Inc (now part of UBS), pointed out when I talked with her about this topic. Ms Fitts, what are your general thoughts related to the alleged 911-insider trading Catherine Austin Fitts: Well, I8217ve never been able to see concrete evidence that the insider trading has been proved. There8217s a lot of anecdotal information from investment bankers and people in the investment community that indicate that there was significant insider trading, particularly in the currency and bond markets, but again it hasn8217t been documented. I think around situations like 911 we8217ve seen things that can only be explained as insider trading. Therefore, it wouldn8217t surprise me if it turns out the allegations are true, because my suspicion is that 911 was an extremely profitable covert operation and a lot of the profits came from the trading. It wouldn8217t even surprise me if it turns out that the Exchange Stabilization Fund traded it and that some of the funding for the compensation fund for the victims came from the ESF. Insider trading happens around these kinds of events, but if you really want to produce evidence of insider trading, you need the subpoena powers of the SEC, and of course we know that they haven8217t exercised them. If anything, right after 911, the government settled a significant amount of cases I presume because a lot of the documents were destroyed by the destruction of WTC building number 7, where the SEC offices and other governmental investigation offices were. 43 Fitts, who had written a longer essay in 2004 related to this, replied to my question about who had benefited from 911: Catherine Austin Fitts: 911 was extraordinarily profitable for Wall Street, they of course got a kind of 8222Get Out of Jail Free card8220 as I8217ve just described. In addition, the largest broker of government bonds, Cantor Fitzgerald, was destroyed, and there was a great deal of money missing from the federal government in the prior four or five years. If you look at the amount of funds involved, it is hard to come to a conclusion other than massive securities fraud was involved, so I find it very interesting that this happened. 44 A short explanation: Cantor Fitzgerald8217s headquarters were located in the North Tower of the WTC (floors 101-105). On 911, the company lost nearly two-thirds of its entire workforce, more than any other tenant in the WTC. (Also two other government bonds brokers, Garbon Inter Capital and Eurobrokers, occupied office space in the WTC towers that were destroyed.) Back to Fitts and the question: 8222Cui bono 9118220 Catherine Austin Fitts: In addition, the federal government took the position that they couldn8217t produce audited financial statements after 911, because they said the office at the Pentagon that produced financial statements was destroyed. Now given what I know of the federal set up of financial statements, I am skeptical of that statement. But needless to say, if you take the government on its word, you had another 8222Get Out of Jail Free card8220 for four trillion dollars and more missing from the federal government. So if you8217re just looking at the financial fraud angle, there were a lot of parties that benefited from 911. But then of course what 911 did, it staged the passage of the Patriot Act and a whole series of laws and regulations that I collectively refer to as 8222The Control on Concentration of Cash Flow Act.8220 It gave incredible powers to centralize. In addition, if you look at monetary policies right after 911 8211 I remember I was over in the City of London driving around with a money manager and his phone rang and he answered it on his speaker phone. It was somebody on Wall Street who he hadn8217t talked to since before 911, and he said to him: 8222Oh Harry, I am so sorry about what has happened, it must have been very traumatic.8220 And the guy said: 8222Don8217t be ridiculous We were able to borrow cheap short and invest long, we8217re running a huge arbitrage, we8217re making a fortune, this is the most profitable thing that ever happened to us8220 8211 So you could tell the monetary policies and sort of insider games were just pumping profits into the bank at that time, so that was very profitable. But of course the big money was used for a significant movement of the military abroad and into Afghanistan and then into Iraq 8230 You could see that the country was being prepared to go to war. And sure enough, 911 was used as a justification to go to war in Afghanistan, to go to war in Iraq, and commit a huge number of actions, and now much of the challenges about the budget are the result of extraordinary expenditures on war including in Afghanistan and Iraq and the costs of moving the army abroad and engaging in this kind of empire building with ground military force. So I think if you ask Cui Bono on 911, one of the big categories was all the people who made money on engineering the popular fear they needed to engineer these wars. I believe whether it was financial fraud, engineering new laws or engineering wars, it was a fantastically profitable covert operation. 45 In that category of people who benefit from 911 are also the arms manufacturer Raytheon, whose share price gained directly from the 911 attacks. Trading of the shares of Raytheon, the producer of Tomahawk and Patriot missiles (and parent company of E-systems, whose clients include the National Security Agency and CIA), experienced an abrupt six-time increase of call option purchases on the day immediately before September 11. 46 The outright purchase of call options implies the expectation that a stock price will rise. In the first week after 911, when the New York Stock Exchange opened again, the value of Raytheon actually shot up considerably. Looking at the development of the stock price, the impression is a very weak performance before the attacks 8211 and then, after resumption of trade, a 8222gap8220 (at substantial volume) upwards. In other words: just under 25 on September 10, the low in the period between August 20 to September 28, at 31, 50 on September 17 and up to 34,80 on September 27, 2001. With regards to government bonds, buyers of US Treasury securities with a maturity of five years were also winners. These securities were traded in an unusually large volume shortly before the attacks. The Wall Street Journal reported at least in early October 2001 that the Secret Service had started an investigation into a suspiciously high volume of US government bond purchases before the attacks. The Wall Street Journal explained: Five-year Treasury bills are the best investments in the event of a global crisis, in particular one like this which has hit the United States. The papers are treasured because of their safety, and because they are covered by the US government, and usually their prices rise if investors shun riskier investments, such as shares. 47 Adding to this phenomenon, the government issues these bonds that serve as a basis of money creation for funding a war such as the immediately declared 8222war on terror8220, engaging the Tomahawks from Raytheon. And here it may again be useful to have a quick look at the 8222cui bono8220 relationship: The US Federal Reserve creates money to fund the war and lends it to the American government. The American government in turn must pay interest on the money they borrow from the Central Bank to fund the war. The greater the war appropriations, the greater the profits are for bankers. 48 A multi-layered combination, one could say. I also talked about the topic of 911 insider trading with one of the world8217s leading practitioners at the interface between the international capital markets, the national security policy of the US as well as geopolitics, James G Rickards. He gave me some answers in a personal discussion, which I am allowed to repeat here with his expressed approval. Question: Did suspicious trading activities of uncovered put options on futures markets occur shortly before 911 James G Rickards: Well, the trading documents certainly look suspicious. It is simply a fact that an unusually high volume of purchases of put-options for the two airlines occurred over the three trading days before the attacks. This is a mere fact, no speculation, no guessing around. This is clearly obvious from the documents of the trading sessions on the derivatives exchanges. Question: Do you think that the intelligence agencies could have got a warning signal based on this information James G Rickards: Theoretically that is possible, if are you are looking and watching out for this. But there was far more significant information, which was ignored. Question: Do you also think that some people with foreknowledge operated speculatively in the option markets James G Rickards: Based on the documentation of the trading session it seems that this has been the case, yes. Let8217s sum up a bit at the end. We have, among other things: The 8222nice detective work8220 by Kevin Ryan related to StratesecWirt Walker III. Some highly inconsistent information vis-a-vis Convarillegal credit card transactions. Scientific papers supporting the allegations that there were indeed unusual trading activities in the option market before the terrorist attacks of 911, although the 911 Commission (based on the investigation of the SEC and the FBI) ruled that possibility out. As it became clear that I would publish this article here at Asia Times Online, I contacted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation via its press spokesman Paul Bresson in order 8222to give the FBI the opportunity to give a public statement with regards to three specific issues8220. Those three specific issues were the ones I have just highlighted. Related to each of them I8217ve asked Mr Bressonthe FBI: 8222Could you comment on this for the public, please8220 Up to this moment, Mr Bressonthe FBI did not respond to my inquiry in any way whatsoever. Does this come as a surprise I8217ve also got back in touch with 8222ars publicandi8220, the firm that does public relations for Convar in Germany. The response said: 8222Unfortunately I have to inform you that the status has not changed, and that Convar considers the issue of 911 as dead in general.8220 As you have read, the status in August of last year was slightly different. At the end of this article, I should perhaps mention that this research ultimately led to negative consequences for me. After I contacted the FBI, I was informed by the publisher of a German financial website, for which I conducted interviews for a professional fee (and had already prepared more work), that no further cooperation was possible. Now that I will come in one way or another into the focus of the FBI, any association with me would be undesirable. Well, you know the rules. As far as the abnormal option trades around 911 are concerned, I want to give Max Keiser the last word in order to point out the significance of the story. Max Keiser: Regardless of who did it, we can know that more than a few had advance warning 8211 the trading in the option market makes that clear. 1 Compare Michael C. Ruppert: Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age Of Oil, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, 2004, page 152. 2 Ibid. page 153. 3 Ibid. page 154 155. 4 Ibid. page 170. 5 Ibid. page 238 253: 911 Insider Trading, or You Didnt Really See That, Even Though We Saw It. 6 Ibid. page 239. 7 Compare Chris Blackhurst: Mystery of terror insider dealers, published at The Independent on October 4, 2001 under: 8 Compare Profits of Death, published at From the Wilderness on December 6, 2001 under: 9 For the fact, that it was George Tenet who recruited Krongard, compare George Tenet: At the Center of the Storm, Harper Collins, New York, 2007, page 19. 10 Compare Marc Chesney, Remo Crameri and Loriano Mancini: Detecting Informed Trading Activities in the Option Markets, University of Zurich, April 2010, online at: 11 Nafeez M. Ahmed: Geheimsache 0911. Hintergrnde ber den 11. September und die Logik amerikanischer Machtpolitik, Goldmann Verlag, Munich, 2004, page 182. (Translated back into English from German.) 12 Compare Michael C. Ruppert: Crossing the Rubicon, page 244 247. 13 Wing-Keung Wong, Howard E. Thompson und Kweehong Teh: Was there Abnormal Trading in the SampP 500 Index Options Prior to the September 11 Attacks, published at Social Sciences Research Network , April 2010, under: 14 Compare Bank of America among 38 stocks in SECs attack probe, published at Bloomberg News on October 3, 2001, archived under: 15 Michael C. Ruppert: Crossing the Rubicon, page 243. 17 Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA8217s Highest Ranks, published at From the Wilderness on October 9, 2001 under: 18 Compare Early September 2001: Almost Irrefutable Proof of Insider Trading in Germany, published at History Commons under: 19 Allen M. Poteshman: Unusual Option Market Activity and the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, published in The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, 2006, Vol. 79, Edition 4, page 1703-1726. 20 Wing-Keung Wong, Howard E. Thompson und Kweehong Teh: Was there Abnormal Trading in the SampP 500 Index Options Prior to the September 11 Attacks, see endnote 13. 21 Ibid. The authors refer to Erin E. Arvedlund: Follow the money: terrorist conspirators could have profited more from fall of entire market than single stocks, published in Barrons on October 8, 2001. 22 Wong, Thompson, Teh: Was there Abnormal Trading in the SampP 500 Index Options Prior to the September 11 Attacks 25 Marina Alcaraz: 11 septembre 2001: des volumes inhabituels sur les options peu avant lattentat, published in Les Echos, page 34, September 10, 2001, online at: 26 Marc Chesney, Remo Crameri and Loriano Mancini: Detecting Informed Trading Activities in the Option Markets, see endnote 10. 30 Compare Marc Chesney, Remo Crameri and Loriano Mancini: Detecting Informed Trading Activities in the Option Markets, published at the University of Zurich on September 7, 2011 under: bf. uzh. chpublikationenpdf2098.pdf 31 Vgl. Lars Schall: Sapere Aude, German Interview with Dr. Daniele Ganser, published at LarsSchall on August 18, 2011 under: 32 Compare a copy of the letter by the SEC on MaxKeiser under: 33 Compare related to this agreement Matt Taibbi: Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes, published at Rolling Stone on August 17, 2011 under: 34 Mark H. Gaffney: Black 911: A Walk on the Dark Side, published at Foreign Policy Journal on March 2, 2011 under: 35 Compare Peter Dale Scott: Launching the U. S. Terror War: the CIA, 911, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 12, No 3, March 19, 2012, online at: japanfocus. org-PeterDale-Scott3723 35 Erik Kirschbaum: German Firm Probes Last-Minute World Trade Center Transactions, published at Reuters on December 19, 2001, online at: 38 Michael C. Ruppert: Crossing the Rubicon, page 244. 39 Ibid. page 423. 40 Ibid. page 423 426. 41 Commission Memorandum: FBI Briefing on Trading, dated August 18, 2003, page 12, online at: media. nara. gov9-11MFRt-0148-911MFR-00269.pdf 42 Lars Schall: 911 Was A Fantastically Profitable Covert Operation, Interview with Catherine Austin Fitts, published at LarsSchall on September 3, 2011 under: 43 Ibid. Compare further related to the cui bono topic Catherine Austin Fitts: 9-11 Profiteering: A Framework for Building the Cui Bono, published at GlobalResearch on March 22, 2004 under: globalresearch. caarticlesFIT403A. html 44 Lars Schall: 911 Was A Fantastically Profitable Covert Operation, see endnote 42. 45 Compare Bank of America among 38 stocks in SECs attack probe, see endnote 14. A Raytheon option that makes money if shares are more than 25 each had 232 options contracts traded on the day before the attacks, almost six times the total number of trades that had occurred before that day. A contract represents options on 100 shares. Raytheon shares soared almost 37 percent to 34.04 during the first week of post-attack U. S. trading. 46 Compare Barry Grey: Suspicious trading points to advance knowledge by big investors of September 11 attacks, published at World Socialist Web Site on October 5, 2001 under: 47 J. S. Kim: Inside the Illusory Empire of the Banking Commodity Con Game, published at The Underground Investor on October 19, 2010 under: Related posts: Re: Deutsche Bank Alex Brown and 911 Insider Trading I had the feeling that there was one final thing left for me to do regarding my research of informed trading activities. 9-11 Insider Trading and Germany8217s Elusive Gold Reserves Keiser Report: Selective Amnesia for Brokers amp Murderers. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent journalist, Lars Schall. Terror Trading 911 8222Terror Trading 911 by Lars Schall and Michael Leitner is a video dedicated to the topic of the alleged informed trading activities. Posted in Allgemein On Sept. 6, 2001, the Thursday before the tragedy, 2,075 put options were made on United Airlines and on Sept. 10, the day before the attacks, 2,282 put options were recorded for American Airlines. Given the prices at the time, this could have yielded speculators between 2 million and 4 million in profit. SUPPRESSED DETAILS OF CRIMINAL INSIDER TRADING LEAD DIRECTLY INTO THE CIAS HIGHEST RANKS CIA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR quotBUZZYquot KRONGARD MANAGED FIRM THAT HANDLED quotPUTquot OPTIONS ON UAL by Michael C. Ruppert COPYRIGHT, 2001, Michael C. Ruppert and FTW Publications, copvcia. Todos os direitos reservados. May be reprinted or distributed for non-profit purposes only. FTW, October 9, 2001 - Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U. S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a 2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the quotput optionsquot on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Until 1997 A. B. quotBuzzyquot Krongard had been Chairman of the investment bank A. B. Brown. A. B. Brown was acquired by Bankers Trust in 1997. Krongard then became, as part of the merger, Vice Chairman of Bankers Trust-AB Brown, one of 20 major U. S. banks named by Senator Carl Levin this year as being connected to money laundering. Krongards last position at Bankers Trust (BT) was to oversee quotprivate client relationsquot. In this capacity he had direct hands-on relations with some of the wealthiest people in the world in a kind of specialized banking operation that has been identified by the U. S. Senate and other investigators as being closely connected to the laundering of drug money. Krongard (re) joined the CIA in 1998 as counsel to CIA Director George Tenet. He was promoted to CIA Executive Director by President Bush in March of this year. BT was acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. The combined firm is the single largest bank in Europe. And, as we shall see, Deutsche Bank played several key roles in events connected to the September 11 attacks. THE SCOPE OF KNOWN INSIDER TRADING Before looking further into these relationships it is necessary to look at the insider trading information that is being ignored by Reuters, The New York Times and other mass media. It is well documented that the CIA has long monitored such trades - in real time - as potential warnings of terrorist attacks and other economic moves contrary to U. S. interests. Previous stories in FTW have specifically highlighted the use of Promis software to monitor such trades. It is necessary to understand only two key financial terms to understand the significance of these trades, quotselling shortquot and quotput optionsquot. quotSelling Shortquot is the borrowing of stock, selling it at current market prices, but not being required to actually produce the stock for some time. If the stock falls precipitously after the short contract is entered, the seller can then fulfill the contract by buying the stock after the price has fallen and complete the contract at the pre-crash price. These contracts often have a window of as long as four months. quotPut Optionsquot are contracts giving the buyer the option to sell stocks at a later date. Purchased at nominal prices of, for example, 1.00 per share, they are sold in blocks of 100 shares. If exercised, they give the holder the option of selling selected stocks at a future date at a price set when the contract is issued. Thus, for an investment of 10,000 it might be possible to tie up 10,000 shares of United or American Airlines at 100 per share, and the seller of the option is then obligated to buy them if the option is executed. If the stock has fallen to 50 when the contract matures, the holder of the option can purchase the shares for 50 and immediately sell them for 100 - regardless of where the market then stands. A call option is the reverse of a put option, which is, in effect, a derivatives bet that the stock price will go up. A September 21 story by the Israeli Herzliyya International Policy Institute for Counter terrorism, entitled quotBlack Tuesday: The Worlds Largest Insider Trading Scamquot documented the following trades connected to the September 11 attacks: - Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options. Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these quotinsidersquot would have profited by almost 5 million . - On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent quotinsidersquot, they would represent a gain of about 4 million . - The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal. - No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday. - Morgan Stanley Dean Witter amp Co. which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October 45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6 . Morgan Stanleys share price fell from 48.90 to 42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least 1.2 million . - Merrill Lynch amp Co. which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 12,215 October 45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day a 1200 increase . When trading resumed, Merrills shares fell from 46.88 to 41.50 assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by quotinsidersquot, their profit would have been about 5.5 million . - European regulators are examining trades in Germanys Munich Re, Switzerlands Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25 of American Airlines stock making the attacks a quotdouble whammyquot for them. On September 29, 2001 - in a vital story that has gone unnoticed by the major media - the San Francisco Chronicle reported, quot Investors have yet to collect more than 2.5 million in profits they made trading options in the stock of United Airlines before the Sept. 11, terrorist attacks, according to a source familiar with the trades and market data quot. quot The uncollected money raises suspicions that the investors - whose identities and nationalities have not been made public - had advance knowledge of the strikes quot. They dont dare show up now. The suspension of trading for four days after the attacks made it impossible to cash-out quickly and claim the prize before investigators started looking. quotOctober series options for UAL Corp. were purchased in highly unusual volumes three trading days before the terrorist attacks for a total outlay of 2,070 investors bought the option contracts, each representing 100 shares, for 90 cents each. This represents 230,000 shares. Those options are now selling at more than 12 each. There are still 2,313 so-called quotputquot options outstanding valued at 2.77 million and representing 231,300 shares according to the Options Clearinghouse Corpquot. quotThe source familiar with the United trades identified Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, the American investment banking arm of German giant Deutsche Bank, as the investment bank used to purchase at least some of these optionsquot This was the operation managed by Krongard until as recently as 1998. As reported in other news stories, Deutsche Bank was also the hub of insider trading activity connected to Munich Re. just before the attacks. CIA, THE BANKS AND THE BROKERS Understanding the interrelationships between CIA and the banking and brokerage world is critical to grasping the already frightening implications of the above revelations. Lets look at the history of CIA, Wall Street and the big banks by looking at some of the key players in CIAs history. Clark Clifford - The National Security Act of 1947 was written by Clark Clifford, a Democratic Party powerhouse, former Secretary of Defense, and one-time advisor to President Harry Truman. In the 1980s, as Chairman of First American Bancshares, Clifford was instrumental in getting the corrupt CIA drug bank BCCI a license to operate on American shores. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and banker. John Foster and Allen Dulles - These two brothers quotdesignedquot the CIA for Clifford. Both were active in intelligence operations during WW II. Allen Dulles was the U. S. Ambassador to Switzerland where he met frequently with Nazi leaders and looked after U. S. investments in Germany. John Foster went on to become Secretary of State under Dwight Eisenhower and Allen went on to serve as CIA Director under Eisenhower and was later fired by JFK. Their professions: partners in the most powerful - to this day - Wall Street law firm of Sullivan, Cromwell. Bill Casey - Ronald Reagans CIA Director and OSS veteran who served as chief wrangler during the Iran-Contra years was, under President Richard Nixon, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. His profession: Wall Street lawyer and stockbroker. David Doherty - The current Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange for enforcement is the retired General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. George Herbert Walker Bush - President from 1989 to January 1993, also served as CIA Director for 13 months from 1976-7. He is now a paid consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the nation, which also shares joint investments with the bin Laden family. A. B. quotBuzzyquot Krongard - The current Executive Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is the former Chairman of the investment bank A. B. Brown and former Vice Chairman of Bankers Trust. John Deutch - This retired CIA Director from the Clinton Administration currently sits on the board at Citigroup, the nations second largest bank, which has been repeatedly and overtly involved in the documented laundering of drug money. This includes Citigroups 2001 purchase of a Mexican bank known to launder drug money, Banamex. Nora Slatkin - This retired CIA Executive Director also sits on Citibanks board. Maurice quotHankquot Greenburg - The CEO of AIG insurance, manager of the third largest capital investment pool in the world, was floated as a possible CIA Director in 1995. FTW exposed Greenbergs and AIGs long connection to CIA drug trafficking and covert operations in a two-part series that was interrupted just prior to the attacks of September 11. AIGs stock has bounced back remarkably well since the attacks. To read that story, please go to fromthewildernessfreeciadrugspart2.html . One wonders how much damning evidence is necessary to respond to what is now irrefutable proof that CIA knew about the attacks and did not stop them. Whatever our government is doing, whatever the CIA is doing, it is clearly NOT in the interests of the American people, especially those who died on September 11. On this particular night the crowd looked promising. I introduced myself to two women there, and after a short while, one of the women told me she worked for the CBOE. The CBOE is the Chicago Board Options Exchange. It is the exchange that handles trading in, among other things, stock options. I half-jokingly asked her, quotWhatever happened to the CBOE investigation of all the profits made by those who bought put options on airlines stocks before 9-11quot (You make money on put options when a stock goes down in price.) Her answered floored me. She said, quotIt probably would have been easy for us to find out who was behind the trades, but the government came in and told the CBOE president to stop the investigation. quot Just to make sure I heard her right, I said to her, quotThe government came in and told the CBOE president not to investigatequot She said, quotYeah, it was really strange. quot The conversation changed for a minute, but I wanted to get back to the government not wanting an investigation. I said to her again, a third time, making sure I heard right, quotThe government didnt want you to investigatequot She looked at me said quotYes, thats right. quot Then she looked at me a little longer, she knew I had interest in this topic, she looked a little nervous and then blurted out to me, quotWe erased the data. Our data on the trades is gone. quot Strike The Root