At 6:50 AM ET today, $1.5 BILLION in notional value worth of S&P 500 futures contracts were bought. Then, 14 minutes later at 7:04 AM ET, President Trump announced "productive discussions" with Iran were underway. Credits: @KobeissiLetter/X
We all know that in politics the cleanest one has the scabies, and with Trump we have seen many little games on the financial and crypto markets so I am not surprised by insider trading, well even this time a few minutes before Trump published his post on the “constructive conversations” with Iran, someone moved 1.5 billion dollars on the S&P500 and sold oil futures for 200 million. The financial market still knew nothing of the president’s words, no one could have imagined that he would release those statements, yet those inside already knew what to do and acted. Coincidentally in ten minutes, the futures on the main Wall Street index bounced almost 3.5%, billions earned in the blink of an eye. This mysterious Mr. X earned about 50 million dollars in half an hour, a perfect case of insider trading. And all this while the majority of people continue to see the stock market either as a simple game of chance, or stay there now studying the movements... and then the gentlemen of politics arrive who manage every bounce and every collapse with decisions made behind closed doors.
Volume in oil futures surged minutes before Trump’s market-turning post. Credits: cnbc.com
And it is not an isolated case. Every time Trump opens his mouth about wars, attacks, or truces, the markets bounce, the billionaires and insiders laugh and get richer and richer. Private investors and pension funds participate unknowingly in this speculation game while the powerful squeeze them and milk as much as possible.
Looking at these episodes, the question is clear: we call ourselves a free market, but how much of our economy is really free and how much is guided by a few who know events in advance? Insider trading, market manipulation, wars used as financial tools… Finance is not just numbers: it is power, information, and control, and in the end, as in other areas, we are just pawns in the game of others.
References:
https://www.ft.com/content/1171d623-3709-4f6e-8ded-a5df4ec57696?syn-25a6b1a6=1