Wild day in the markets today. With images of Greek Police literally cracking heads of protesters and cameramen alike on TV, the stock market began to tank. Down 30 S&P points ….. down 40…. 50…60..70.80.90. The S&P was almost down 100 points or 10% (half of which occurred in a period of five minutes). The Dow Jones was down almost 1,000 points. As part of our strategy, we buy and sell stocks – net short on average. With stocks getting killed, I was buying them like crazy. I couldn’t get orders in fast enough. At one point, I told my equity salesman – just take whatever order you have…and DOUBLE it. Just buy whatever you can. As can been seen from the graph above, the panic was over in a few minutes. After weeks (if not months) of sleepy boring markets, it was quite fun and the fund made some money in the meantime.
Word is that the major decline came when a single trader placed a $16 Billion S&P futures trade instead of a $16 Million by mistake. Whoops. However, the selling wasn’t all due to that. The market was for sale before that trade, and people are worried about Europe. The steady decline is a prime example of complacency v. fear in this market.
MSNBC is reporting that Obama blames today’s decline on the Bush Administration.
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