Plunge Protection Team in full effect

Any body else see todays massive reversal?

More details please ...

And never has been.

I SAID MOVE ON!!!

HOP IT...

Also nice imagination. Because an occurence happens, there are dark forces at work. It is a medieval way to go through life, but heck, because those folks I am against did one thing bad, they must do all things "bad." Quad Erat Demonstrandum. :eyes:

.....or do I Google Plunge Protection Team (aka Crash Protection Team) and read these links?

washingtonpost.com: Plunge Protection Team
Cornered Rats and The Plunge Protection Team
Decision Point ®: Plunge Protection Team
Nasdaq plunge
Safehaven | The Plunge Protection Team

Or any of the other 37,295 hits for 'Plunge Protection Team'!

I think he may have them confused with Santa or the Easter Bunny! :)

1) The Washington Post article details the working of the Working Groups on Financial Markets. Not one activity listed in that article has any resemblance to the supposed action of a "Plunge Protection Team." So, that's moot.

2) The El Dorado Gold piece speculates about the so-called "Plunge Protection team," but is a questionable source on its face, since the entire purpose of the website seems to be to convince people that the market is inherently unstable and or manipulated in order to sell people gold. Very iffy, and I'm surprised you'd cite it. This is like a herbalist article on the dangers of conventional medecine, together with a secret conspiracy of the AMA. There's a dog in this fight.

3) While the Decision Point commentary seems somewhat reasonable, it is short and not particularly well-supported. In addition, it states that "Not all upside reversals are the result of the PPT. The market can suddenly change directions in mid-crash simply because of traders taking profits when the market has gone 'too far, too fast.'" In any case, the article gives us no reason to actually believe that there is a PPT.

4) The nex.net.au article talks about the PPT, but it is unclear whether they are referring to the WGFM. Into what was the $2 billion injected? The banks? The markets? That's the crux of the issue. The article doesn't say. The link for "Plunge Protection Team" there takes one to a description of the Long Term Capital Management crisis, but gives no additional information on the secret and mystical cabal...

5) The best of all your citations, the John Maudlin article is actually a detailed argument AGAINST THE EXISTENCE of a PPT! Thanks for the cite; I appreciate the support! Not only does Maudlin claim that the "plunge protection team does not exist...it is an urban myth, he also seems to offer a $100,000 reward to anyone who CAN prove its existence! I suppose you'll be taking up the challenge with another google search shortly...:eyes:

1) The Washington Post article titled "Plunge Protection Team" that contains the following paragraph.

The Working Group's main goal, officials say, would be to keep the markets operating in the event of a sudden, stomach-churning plunge in stock prices -- and to prevent a panicky run on banks, brokerage firms and mutual funds. Officials worry that if investors all tried to head for the exit at the same time, there wouldn't be enough room -- or in financial terms, liquidity -- for them all to get through. In that event, the smoothly running global financial machine would begin to lock up.

How can you say that "Not one activity listed in that article has any resemblance to the supposed action of a "Plunge Protection Team." So, that's moot." :eyes: back at ya!

2) The El Dorado Gold piece which you claim "speculates about the so-called "Plunge Protection team"", begins by citing the following Executive Order.

Executive Order 12631--Working Group on Financial Markets
March 18, 1988

By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish a Working Group on Financial Markets, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Establishment. (a) There is hereby established a Working Group on Financial Markets (Working Group). The Working Group shall be composed of:

(1) the Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee;
(2) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his designee;
(3) the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his
designee; and
(4) the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or her designee.
(b) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee, shall be the Chairman of the Working Group.

Sec. 2. Purposes and Functions. (a) Recognizing the goals of enhancing the integrity, efficiency, orderliness, and competitiveness of our Nation's financial markets and maintaining investor confidence, the Working Group shall identify and consider:

(1) the major issues raised by the numerous studies on the events in the financial markets surrounding October 19, 1987, and any of those recommendations that have the potential to achieve the goals noted above; and

(2) the actions, including governmental actions under existing laws and
regulations (such as policy coordination and contingency planning), that are appropriate to carry out these recommendations.

(b) The Working Group shall consult, as appropriate, with representatives of the various exchanges, clearinghouses, self-regulatory bodies, and with major market participants to determine private sector solutions wherever possible.

(c) The Working Group shall report to the President initially within 60 days (and periodically thereafter) on its progress and, if appropriate, its views on any recommended legislative changes.

Sec. 3. Administration. (a) The heads of Executive departments, agencies, and independent instrumentalities shall, to the extent permitted by law, provide the Working Group such information as it may require for the purpose of carrying out this Order.

(b) Members of the Working Group shall serve without additional compensation for their work on the Working Group.

(c) To the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of funds therefor, the Department of the Treasury shall provide the Working Group with such administrative and support services as may be necessary for the performance of its functions.
RONALD REAGAN
The White House,
March 18, 1988.
Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:23 a.m., March 21, 1988

This is not speculation it's an Executive Order! IOW a law written to establish a working group to, in part, help prevent a repeat of what happened on October 19, 1987. Dog or no dog, you can't deny that.

3) The Decision Point Glossary entry for "Plunge Protection Team" may draw the obvious conclusion that, "Not all upside reversals are the result of the PPT. The market can suddenly change directions in mid-crash simply because of traders taking profits when the market has gone 'too far, too fast.'", but it's very existence in a glossary of financial terms by a well known financial company points to the fact that "Plunge Protection Team" is an accepted part of the vernacular of the financial community.

4) The fourth link I provided has a link titled "Plunge Protection Team" that leads to this.

The Collapse of Long Term Credit Management

From New York Times September 26 1998

LTCM ( Long Term Credit Management ) used its $2.2 billion in capital from investors as collateral to buy $125 billion in securities. It then used those securities as collateral to enter into exotic financial transactions. i.e derivatives - worth $1.25 trillion. In other words, leverage of 568 to 1

It was reported in the Melbourne Herald Sun of September 28 1998, that financial markets around the world were rattled by news of LTCM's problems, fearing that other such funds may also be threatened. It said that Alan Greenspan arranged a $3.5 billion bailout of LTCM which was being "financed" by a consortium of 14 of Wall Street's most influential banks and finance houses, with an oversight committee, grouping Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, J.P.Morgan, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Travelers Group and UBS. Other companies involved in the rescue include Bankers Trust, Barclays, the Chase Manhatten Corporation, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Paribas and Societe Generale.

<snip>

It was reported also, that the consortium that stepped in, said that it acted to "prevent disruption in global markets" and spokesman from the consortium said that the purpose of the equity recapitalization, was to provide liquidity to sustain LTCM while it works to realise the inherent value of the portfolio; and that two of the LTCM partners are Nobel Prize winning economists who borrowed from Wall Street banks to "finance speculation" in differences among interest rates on various bonds.

Lyndon LaRouche, in a briefing on the situation explained how idealogy was - working to produce the new ongoing world depression: "...It is important to point out... that the 1997 Nobel Prize for economics, was awarded to Robert C. Merton and Myron Scholes for the so-called Black-Scholes formula. it sank LTCM and much of the USA's, and also the world's banking system into a global financial derivatives pit whose bottom has still not been reported yet...."

"Still worse, not only U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, but Greenspan in concert with the leading central bankers of Western Europe, and Japan, and in concert with the governments of the G-7 IMF member-nations, responded to the LTCM derivatives blowout with the greatest and most insane, hyperinflationary financial pump-priming in history from the beginning of October 1998..."

<More>

Now if this isn't evidence of the government working in collusion with private financial institutions to manipulate the markets I don't know what it would take to convince you.

5) Speaking of having a dog in this fight, according to his page John Mauldin is president of Millennium Wave Advisors, LLC, a registered investment adviser. His job therefore is to sell people on the concept that "there's nothing to see here, every thing's FINE, buy, buy, buy!"
Talk about having a dog in this fight! I only included that link to see if you would actually read the information I linked to and to my surprise, YOU DID! :) (In the spirit of "fair and balanced!)

I can no more prove the existence of a "Plunge Protection Team" that has no official structure or legal standing than I can disprove the existence of GOD. I can only point to the evidence of the legal framework that allows for its existence and the evidence of their past actions!

All I can tell you is that it says right on our money, "E PLURIBUS UNUM" so "CAVEAT EMPTOR"! ;-)

The Washington Post article lists several techniques that the WGFM uses in case of a market meltdown (which, I should say, would constitute more than a 1.5% drop!). Not one of these techniques includes flooding the market with buys in order to falsely inflate stock prices. Since that is the essential claim behind the "PPT" myth, the Washington Post article gives you nothing at all. As is usual in nonsensical conspiracy theories, an element of truth (that there is a group that has developed strategies and techniques to deal with sudden and precipitous market drops) is used to prop up an absolutely unsubstantiated claim (that one of the techniques is a secret cash infusion into the market in order to falsely inflate stock prices). If you can show me that some team buys up a large number of securities in order to stem drops in the market, then you have a PPT. If all you show me are consortiums and government entities collaborating on liquidity issues, NYSE closures and other such problems, then you DO NOT have the PPT as it is being represented on this board.

The exact same critique can be made of the Executive Order (which says nothing about buying up securities), and the LTCM story. The fact that PPT is a piece of lore in financial communities does not exclude it from being an urban myth, which it is. In any case, the writer for #3 provides nothing but mystical speculation for his claim.

As for #5 having a dog in the hunt, I suppose so. That said, it was your link, not mine. Furthermore, I don't think you HAVE shown a legal basis for the existence of a PPT as it has been described (saving the market with sudden influxes of cash from a secret cabal or government entity). There is no legal basis for a PPT in the mandate of the WGFM, nor is there any evidence presented here that such an entity has ever injected cash into a struggling securities market at any time.

Or perhaps it is me. Explain precisely what activities the PPT engages in and show me how these articles point to that activity. Don't forget to explain how that activity contributed to today's sudden jump in the indexes between 2:20 and 4:00pm (or others like it).

Markses as PP said at the start not believing in the PPT is like believing in Santa.

Moreover Fed Gov. Ben Bernanke has practically admitted it?

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0212/S00010.htm

Finally who prevented the LTCM meltdown... do you really think it was the NY Fed?

I'm still waiting for an actual description of what people take the PPT's activities to be. It's easy to perpetuate a myth when its subject is indeterminate.

BTW, that vague and contentless "someone struck a nerve" argument is just about as tight as can be...:eyes:

The PPT uses treasury and fed created credit to purchase stocks, bonds and commodities at key moments so as to prevent plunges in the market and panic - e.g. yesterday. They are the reason that the $7 trillion fall in NY markets since 2000 has been gradual rather than cataclysmic.

The connection with Bernanke is that he describes what they "would do" if necessary, if pushed into "unconventional interventions". The truth is that "unconventional intervention" has been in place for years.

The PPT is also most probably involved with selling "paper" gold in association with JP MOrgan etc... in order to stop gold derivatives going haywire.

There are just four people who control all of the U.S. markets through
> their use of dangerous and explosive DERIVATIVES. They are risking the
> assets and retirement funds of all Americans. Because of their
> manipulations, especially since 2001, U.S. financial markets are now
> based on the gambling whims of a special fraternity of Federal Government
> DERIVATIVE dealers.
>
> This group is known among Wall Street as the Plunge Protection Team
> (PPT). Their "official" role was to prevent another 1987 "Black Monday".
> They have the entire U.S. Treasury at their disposal to manipulate the
> markets through DERIVATIVES (futures options). In other words, they are
> using the assets behind the U.S. Treasury to rig the prices of commodites
> (gold, currencies, etc.) and stocks.
>
> This fraternity comprises of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, the Secretary
> of the Treasury, and the heads of the SEC and the Commodity Futures
> Trading Association. It works closely with all the U.S. exchanges and
> Wall Street banks, including the largest DERIVATIVE risk holders Citibank
> and JP Morgan Chase.
>
> Few people are aware of Executive Order 12631 signed by Ronald Reagan on
> March 18, 1988. In a nut shell, this is the "authority" behind the four
> dictators and the "laws" and "regulations" that have backed their
> casino-style DERIVATIVE gambling spree since 2001. Here are some
> highlights of this Executive Order to ponder:
>
> http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48736
>
> Executive Order 12631 - Working Group on Financial Markets - Mar. 18,
> 1988; 53 FR 9421, 3 CFR, 1988 Comp., p. 559.
>
> "By virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution
> and laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish a
> Working Group on Financial Markets, it is hereby ordered as follows:
>
> Section 1. Establishment. (a) There is hereby established a Working Group
> on Financial Markets (Working Group). The Working Group shall be composed
> of:
>
> (1) the Secretary of the Treasury, or his designee;
> (2) the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,
> or his designee;
> (3) the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his
> designee; and
> (4) the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or her
> designee.
>
> Section 2. Purposes and Functions. (a) Recognizing the goals of enhancing
> the integrity, efficiency, orderliness, and competitiveness of our
> Nation's financial markets and maintaining investor confidence, the
> Working Group shall identify and consider:
>
> (2) the actions, including governmental actions under existing laws and
> regulations (such as policy coordination and contingency planning), that
> are appropriate to carry out these recommendations.
>
> (b) The Working Group shall consult, as appropriate, with representatives
> of the various exchanges, clearinghouses, self-regulatory bodies, and
> with major market participants to determine private sector solutions
> wherever possible.
>
> Section 3. Administration. (c) To the extent permitted by law and subject
> to the availability of funds therefore, the Department of the Treasury
> shall provide the Working Group with such administrative and support
> services as may be necessary for the performance of its functions."

it's too hard to leverage against popular sentiment, and one of the most popular ones I see everywhere (including here) is: "buy on the dips."

yeah, pretty stunning.

...10 billion went inexpicably missing from the treasury today...

Thanks!

Analysis: Plunge protection for markets?
By Ian Campbell
UPI Chief Economics Correspondent
Published 3/20/2003 5:15 PM

Eight days ago, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, king of the U.S. stock indices, was at a five-month low, while the euro had risen to $1.10, its highest level against the dollar for more than three years. Then, suddenly things changed.

The Dow began on a rally that would take it up 713 points, or 9.4 percent, in five trading days. The dollar suddenly surged 4 percent, bringing the euro's value down to a little below $1.06.

These surges were somewhat surprising. The first upswing was attributed by some to the possibility that war might be delayed or not happen at all; the second to a belief that the markets were relieved to see war begin and "closure" of the Iraq crisis approach.

"The two reasons contradict each other," wrote London's Evening Standard newspaper, adding that "the explanations do not make sense unless the markets are being rigged."

Rigged? U.S. markets? By whom?

more: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030320-045829-6404r

Because I'm sure you the Dow rallied another few thousand points after that article was written.

Not much of a plunge to protect.

PPT is going to be real busy for a while, me thinks. I love watching the excuses for both the fall and the rise of the market, Linda Blair would give them applause for the spinning!

A bit old but...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/blackm/plunge.htm

REACTING TO A PLUNGE

After the market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929:

* The Federal Reserve provided loans and credit to financial systems.

* President Hoover met with business, labor and farm organizations to encourage capital spending and discourage layoffs; he also promised higher tariffs.

* Federal income taxes were reduced by 1 percent by the end of the year.

After the market dropped 22.6 percent on Oct. 19, 1987, the Federal Reserve:

* Encouraged the New York Stock Exchange to stay open.

* Encouraged big commercial banks not to pull loans to major Wall Street houses.

* Kept open a subsidiary of Continental Illinois Bank that was the largest lender to the commodity trading houses in Chicago.

* Flooded the banking system with money to meet financial obligations.

* Announced it was ready to extend loans to important financial institutions.

What would happen today during a stock drop would depend on the particulars. Here are current guidelines:


* If the Dow Jones industrial average falls 350 points within a trading day, NYSE trading would be halted for 30 minutes.

* If the DJIA falls another 200 points that day, trading would stop for one hour.

* If the market declines more than 550 points in a day, no further restrictions would be applied.


SOURCE: The New York Stock Exchange, "The Crash and the Aftermath" by Barrie A. Wigmore

...so that you always won, WOULDN'T YOU?

Oops. Sorry. Forgot that we try to practice the TRUTH here whenever possible.

There is a PPT. I know because I received "the phone call" at the market bottom in August 1982 from an institutional broker at Morgan Stanley while working at a trading desk for a hedge fund in San Francisco.

This was more likely a reaction off the 200 day moving average for the S&P 500. This would a normal spot for a futures related rally.

O