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"No Longer Confined To The Lunatic Fringe": SocGen Admits Markets Are Completely Manipulated
Perhaps the most interesting thing about China’s "unprecedented" plunge protection efforts - which, as we outlined on Wednesday, have succeeded in making China Securities Finance Corp. a top-10 shareholder in at least eight firms - is that in some ways, they aren’t “unprecedented” at all. That is, while some of what we’ve seen out of Beijing over the past month - notably the sweeping trading halts and the Politburo agitprop campaign aimed at "malicious" foreign short sellers - was more overt than what we might expect to see in more "developed' markets, there’s certainly nothing terribly unusual about a central bank propping up equities.
After all, the BoJ is well on its way to cornering the ETF market in Japan and, as a matter of policy, steps in to support Japanese stocks when sentiment appears weak, while the SNB has amassed a stock portfolio worth nearly $100 billion. As for the US, well, we’ve made no secret of our feelings about the slightly more than arms-length arrangement between the NY Fed and Citadel.
Meanwhile, US corporate management teams are also in the business of propping up stocks as buybacks have served to replace the monthly flow lost to the taper.
Considering the above, one is certainly left to believe that the term "market" may have lost all meaning in the seven years since the crisis. Here with a rather shockingly honest lament on manipulated markets, the disappearance of Benjamin Graham’s "voting machine", and perhaps most importantly, a vindication of the tinfoil hat fringe blogs, is SocGen.
* * *
Via SocGen
No longer a voting machine
If in the short run, to paraphrase Benjamin Graham, equities are a voting machine, then it seems many of these votes are being coerced by interventionists. China is not alone in trying to influence equity prices, central bankers the world over have become obsessed with asset prices, to the extent that the notion of central banks making outright purchases of equities is no longer confined to the lunatic fringe. Of course none of these institutions are remotely interested in 'weighing up' the long-term returns. If they were, given the absence of attractive valuations and actual cash flow growth, they might be a little more circumspect in their cheerleading.
Corporate executives, who are rewarded for achieving EPS and share price targets, typically in the form of stock options, are also experts in the art of creating a short-term positive market impression. And to great effect, given the (literally) incredible performance of some tech stocks last week. Positive price momentum is a powerful force and one that few corporates are likely to readily interrupt with bad news. So while 'prudence accounting'may inform GAAP earnings, it seems largely absent from many of the pro-forma figures corporates would like us to focus on.
One of our favourite charts below highlights the extent to which near-term earnings are influenced (manipulated ...?) by the approaching reporting season. Earnings are usually cut immediately prior to reporting only to see them beaten during that season. We call these "just in time" consensus forecasts. The problem with these manufactured surprises is they create a false impression as ultimately there is no follow-through to higher future expectations – the trend in earnings is still down. So perhaps it is best not to be short during the reporting season.
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Admits Markets Are Completely Manipulated
Wait....what?
It actually started when they began to manipulate money, the means of exchange.
Meaning gold and silver.
Gold is the fiat anchor. The frame of reference.
When they manipulate gold, they manipulate the value of the whole fiat ring against real assets, which is of course why the gold manipulation is so important to the success of their now wholly fraudulent ponzi system.
If this is success, batten the hatches for failure.
So is this good news or bad news? Ah who cares, time to instantly dump Billions in gold shorts onto the futures "market" at the most illiquid hours possible!
I remember way back when Japan was going to be the richest, most dominate country in the world and was buying up America. Now we have China and the script looks eerily familiar......
"Whoever controls the price of gold controls the world." H. Kissinger
"Whoever controls the Prime Meridian controls the world"
D. Dan, Circa 2008
"Whoever controls the Indian Ocean dominates Asia. This ocean
is the key to the seven seas in the twenty-first century, the destiny
of the world will be decided in these waters."
Alfred Thayer Mahan
Correct, and it has been like this for 100+ years!
"...the notion of central banks making outright purchases of equities is no longer confined to the lunatic fringe."
The manipulators have become the "lunatic fringe"
"...the notion of central banks making outright purchases of equities.
It's much easier than that. They do it by purchasing "non-deliverable, cash settlement" futures and options contracts. Buy until expiration. Let them expire. Rinse and repeat.....Never have to sell.
The start point was some Chosen Folk stringing Jesus up to shut his trap. Let the good times roll.
Control the cost of money, ie interest rates, and you control the cost of everything
denominated by money. Simple really.
Thus we are not a free market but one manipulated by an unelected body of pseudo economists from ivory tower universities and mutual admiration societies.
Apparently, also, trading through the NY Fed branch loaded with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan "friends"...and Citadel.
People who are tired of this, and are in the business...should have a trading halt of their own...enmasse .
Let Goldman and Citadel trade with each other.
+1 for "mutual admiration society".
I love the title however, I did not authorize the use of my photo. Please take it down ASAP!
https://youtu.be/Cmbt4z_Rst8?t=36s
Someone's ready to say "Pull it!" now that the elites have stacked their phyzz.
First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they agree with you.
I know this one.....then you kick their ass.
No you don't, then they kick their own asses.
Exactly. There are only three inconsistent and consistantly annoying laws in the universe. Sod's law, Murphy's law and Finagles law. Anything will, can and does fuck up no matter how well planned, engineered, prayed for or developed. If it's not on your side, takes very little to break literally anything or anyone.
I'd say, "then they pretend that's what they'd known all along."
Get it right CD; "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Gandhi
Notice I did not use quotation marks. Thus I did not get it 'wrong'.
Either way, there will be a fight. There always is. Nothing of any real value comes without sacrifice or work.
same as it ever was...
Actually, there is no record of Gandhi ever saying that.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0603/Political-misquotes-The-...
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi#Disputed
"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. First it is ridiculed, then it is opposed, and finally it is
regarded as self evident."
It's now an open secret that the central banks are maintaining absurdly high valuations in equities via open market operations.
Everyone knows it except the CNBC tards.
The markets are now analogous to the Chernobyl sarcophagus , the Fukushima "containment" and the Hanford nuclear waste tanks.
I would say a septic tank and I see the Taxpayer Honey Wagon in the distance coming to pump it out.
Those holes were engineered in!
Not true FF, they know it but are paid to say what the "Market Makers" tell them to say. No difference between them and that lady reporting the North Korean news on their only channel.
The real question is "why?".
Remember, the central bank is just a collection of banks. They are all lenders. And, they've far over extended themselves. This is about preserving the banks. And they're desperate. They're pulling out all the stops. They can't create enough organic growth with low interest rates to collect the loan payments. So, they bailed out their banker buddies with TARP. They lowered the interest rates, but that wasn't enough. So, they lowered them further by BUYING treasuries. But that wasn't enough. So they began to buy mortgages and securities. Still, that wasn't enough, so they began to buy equities out right.
The FED is shitting its pantsuit b/c the FIAT system is collapsing under their abject greed.
One thing we know they are not buying paper Gold or Silver. That's done on the sly and only physical.
Buying gold and silver is racist.
Everything rayciss
#TinfoilLivesMatter
Why don't you add something to the conversation? We don't want ZH to be an echo chamber, so why don't you give us your thoughts on the state of things?
Ok, here in Thailand the gold is flying off the shelves....low price=more buying.....every whore in town is buying gold.
And that is a fact Jack!
As I said, I believe we have reached a permanently high plateau in stock prices. There's little reason for them to go higher (QE4 not announced yet) but no chance central banks will let them go lower.
Yay, I won!
But what kind of QE will QE4 be...if there's no collateral? The "no collateral" Weimar kind?
The collateral is your life and mine.
Hoo rah to the not so born again christian.
Bingo! Forward soviet/tenant!!!
FYI- this "collateral" (my tribe and I) bite back!
"The collateral is your life and mine."
Human productivity is the only collateral that has ever existed.
This is the last thing the statists and parasites, oligarchs and bureaucrats, debt dealers and counterfeiters, ever want the citizenry to wholly realize as the citizenry may act to enforce their property rights with regards to themselves..
Please report to the nearest FEMA camp for your re-education...
(but yes, spot on)
"Human productivity is the only collateral that has ever existed"
no, human productivity is the worst collateral that has ever existed
productive land and (staple or luxury) trade goods are the best, followed by capital goods like ships and machinery, but even cattle
"quality of collateral" is actually easy to understand: does it produce something, best reliably? then it's fine. can you reliably exchange it? second best
humans-as-collateral only comes into the game when the weasels start to say: "why not?"
Examples: "everybody ought to own a home", or "everybody ought to have credit", or "everybody ought to have a university education" or "everybody ought to have a car"
On August 9, the Federal Reserve applied the pin to the bubble. It increased the bank-loan rate and began to sell securities in the open market. Both actions have the effect of reducing the money supply. Rates on brokers' loans jumped to 20%. On October 29, the stock market collapsed. Thousands of investors were wiped out in a single day. The insiders who were forewarned had converted their stocks into cash while prices were still high. They now became the buyers. Some of the greatest fortunes in America were made in that fashion.
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/g-edward-griffin-great-duck-dinner.h...
What's the point of this article?
To state the obvious and irritate the delusional.
There should be a Captain Obvious tag for stuff like this.
Next they'll tell me eating beans could cause the expulsion of noxious fumes from my ass.
I am not that young...it's hard to recall a time when the casino's weren't rigged.
Hope not, then you have to call the Dr. and tell him you have cancer.
At least in a casino you know what the deal is! Even better, should you actually win some cash, the casino will let you keep 100% of those "winnings"....
Give you a chuckle over your morning coffee..... lol
there’s certainly nothing terribly unusual about a central bank propping up equities.
That has been going on since at least 2009 if not January 1988 when the Plunge Protection Team was first formed.
What took you so long?
The PPT massive success in 2000 & 2008 should give even CNBC pause for thought.
If they truly control equities,and have since 1988, what happened ?
HFT's is not as new as many people think, first trading algoswere written back
in the 1960's.
Interesting, my first memory of the algos was the 1987 crash which was when everyone bought into the "portfolio insurance"
To much control(ing) is what.
"And so Satan took him to a high precipice and said, 'If you but bow down and worship me, all these kingdoms of the earth I shall give to you.'" - And Jesus, in the coolest way ever said, "It is written, 'Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.'"
You really want to know who's behind all of this? For many, there appears to be no way out; no going back.
Haven't seen too many bankers take the leap lately.
"SocGen Admits Markets Are Completely Manipulated"
Any market, goods or service that can be manipulated... will be, that is a fact.
It's nothing new it has been going on since the caveman. However manipulators have forever denied that they were doing such a thing, and would go to their grave before admitting it.
That has changed, now the "manipulators" are out in the wide open without any cover or shame or fear of prosecution, and that's what changed the game. No fear of breaking, bending or twisting laws.
The system is completely corrupt period from the bottom to the very top.
Denial is a tough nut to crack.
Corrupt? You're using the wrong "C" word. It's out in the open, in your face Criminality. Quite frankly, TPTB really do not care what the Slaves think. Psychopaths who believe they're untouchable.
exactly, let me know when SocGen admits not only that the markets are manipulated, but that their owners and they are the ones doing the manipulating, and that their very existence has been and always will be based upon criminality.
You're missing the point. They are attempting to escape the lieu by blaming their minky.
If you thought for a second you've seen it all... Seattle officials join push for Sharia-compliant mortgages, loans
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/22/local-and-commuity-leaders-ac...
We want to come to your country for a better life - now please change the way you do everything so its just like the
If interest is illegal .... so is profit .... so is rent .... anyway, these Muzzie immigrants are being treated like "Welfare Royalty" .... much to the chagrin of Mexican "wet backs" .... who are Christian and work for a living !
Exactly. The only way to beat the joo is to embrace the Muslim.
"Exactly. The only way to beat the joo is to embrace the Muslim."
FUCK THAT NOISE.
"Fuck that noise" is right.
Islam and Marxism are going to have to be wiped from the Earth. They are the twin religions of psychopathy.
Duplicate.
Pirates at least had the dignity to hoist the Jolly Roger before attacking.
Not these bilge rats.
"Pirates at least had the dignity to hoist the Jolly Roger before attacking. "
I see modern variations of the Jolly Roger on every bank I drive past.
The ol' skull and cross bones were symbolic of the human age of plunder.
Now the piracy is corporate, and thus the branding is corporatized.
The Captains of Industry are the modern Captains of Piracy.
Wells Fargo logo = Jolly Roger logo.
Citi Corp logo = Jolly Roger logo...
The general support by TPTB of PPTs proves this. However, the wise will dismiss this article ;) - http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=8947
I don't get it. So, like, in the event earnings will be weak, companies disclose it as early as possible so as to set appropriate expectations and avoid surprising investors? And I'm supposed to be 'shocked and outraged' by this...obvious stylized fact of the market?
Either whomever curates these articles for ZH needs to do a better job of filtering, or whomever is in charge of authoring these research articles needs to quit letting the summer interns have access to the 'send' button. Because holy fuck this is bad...
Edit: not just bad, but outrageously bad. The more I think about it, the angrier I get that someone actually got paid to type this bullshit excuse for 'insight.' I don't know what's worse, this, or the fact everyone in here is jumping on it like it's gospel. Seriously, folks, just stop and think for a minute the actual content of this report.
No, companies lower guidance just so they can beat the lowered bar. It would be one thing if they said "we are lowering our guidance to x pennies per share" , but when they lower guidance to x and they beat it by x plus 5 pennies then that is clear market manipulation. As for the rest of your comment, please tell me you don't actually believe these are real markets? Because even my most unsophisticated clients know the deal. If you believe they are real then you stand alone.
Hey asshole, re-read my comment. Did i disupute the fact markets are or are not rigged? No. Am I disputing the narrative you present? No. Can you draw those conclusions from the analysis SocGen presented? Abso-fucking-lutely not. This isn't about what I or anyone else thinks of the markets. This is about piss-poor analysis being pawned off to the masses and holding it up as some kind of incontrovertable evidence. It's bullshit and I'm calling out the author as a hack.
After all these years and ZH is still slumming it with sell side research.
I'm simply saying that when companies lower guidance and then beat it handily they do it for their own benefit and not their share holders. The fact that you have to resort to name calling when challenged shows the depth of your mental maturity and you inability to express yourself in big boy words.
Edit: By the way, instead of getting angry about articles, do what the grown ups do. Either ignore them or choose not to read them. Kind of funny you've "been here"for six years and you only have three comments.
Big boy words? Ok, did they follow individual company releases or some kind of industry cohort? No. Did they weight the results by some kind of measure (be it market cap, book value, etc)? No. All the did was take a ratio of aggregate upgrades/downgrades and plot it against aggregate earnings releases. What does that tell you? Absolutely nothing, other than the fact that companies, when faced with disappointing results, will get out in front of the news earlier (when there are less earnings releases) than companies that are going to meet/beat original guidance. Which is like the biggest 'yeah, no shit Sherlock' statement of the century. That's all. Period. There's nothing else you can infer from that chart, except maybe some 'trend' as to the overall ratio. Even then that's not exciting, given the business cycle.
In short, it's absolutely worthless and I'm appauled it was published.
Exactly. This tells you nothing.
@nopat - Ignorant Immature Fool - Dr. already said it plain and simple..
You see that "x" in the top right? save everyone and yourself some time click it... ZHers have hear your songs for years now.
For years. Really?
And what songs would these be?
I highly suggest you re-read my comments. Carefully.
Sure. But this is Soc Gen not ZH. You can shit all over it, or, take it home and place it on a shelf. who gives a fuck. Its ZH saying, "oh look, here's Soc Gen weighing in." thats it. thats all. its that easy.
And I'm weighing in...on their...weighing in?
It's called a standard. We should hold ourselves to one.
The only way to know they are manipulated is if you are the one manipulating them. Quickly, arrest those men who point out the manipulation!
Everyone gets out at the top .... bought out by a "benevolent" socialist government .... no one gets hurt .... the "People" end up owning everything through their government .... there's no crash .... a peaceful transition to a command market .... a Keynesian dream .... and people like Dutch Boy and Hillary .... really believe this crap !
So if you like your crap, you can keep you crap, we call it too much junk in the trunk around here.
2007 was when I came out like a GAY BOY and proclaimed to anybody that would listen, the markets were rigged/manipulated and I felt liberated for saying so. The subsequent ridicule I received, has allowed me to now laugh at those, who laugh at me back then. The markets being rigged, was as obvious as night follows day, or a shit is followed by a piss. Plus too many friends told me of the shenanigans of their dealings in the City, to not notice it was a cesspit of lies, corruption and fraud. If lies, corruption and fraud are around, then logic dictates rigging also takes place; hence I was aware of LIBOR, FOREX and precious metals market manipulation from the very beginning. Could the J.P Morgan, London whale be any more obvious? lol
Manipulated is just the politically correct term for saying rigged. And if you want an example of lies, corruption, fraud and outright theft in context to market manipulation, then this article will explain it all, especially in the knowledge of FOREX rigging. And no, nobody went to prison for it. Enjoy the read..... http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/05/31/goldman-sachs-lost-...
Corporate executives, who are rewarded for achieving EPS and share price targets, typically in the form of stock options, are also experts in the art of creating a short-term positive market impression.
AHH...NO shit?
Markets should priced in the AM, like Gold. The ‘Shanghai Fix.’
Soc Gen to be investigated for money laundering in 3, 2, 1.
Do you think they have clean hands, then?
Or was this a momentary lapse of honesty?
Well, No SHIT, SHERLOCK............
Instead of calling this a manipulated market, I would prefer to say that there is NO market. The whole thing is a facade, much like a bank, which is designed to suck in your savings and then let you wear the outcome when the market crashes.
Who's down voting me? Stop this immediately you troll!
#PeakPonzi
the "lunatic fringe" is right about a bunch of stuff
Do you think GOLD, SILVER, & PM stocks are manipulated?
10000000000000000000000000% manipulated by the f u c k sticks of the world.
"there’s certainly nothing terribly unusual about a central bank propping up equities."
Except they get their money for free and can intervene in any market with that unlimited stash. Goal seek any level.
Gold and Silver use to be the obvious opt out for everyone when the Fraud go to high. I guess it still is, but they are doing their best to discourage that too.
Lunatic fringe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFVMMCwsss
Lunatic FringeI know you're out there
You're in hiding
And you hold your meetings
I can hear you comin'
I know what your after
We're wise to you this time
(Wise to you this time)
We won't let you kill the laughter Uh huh
Uh huh
Uh huh...
SocGen soon to be investigated for something illegal... listen boys..we know what is going on out there, but you are NOT supposed to admit anything. That will be a $300 million fine or we pull your charter.....
SO does that mean we can all sue them now?
Ah hah!!! I knew it!
Ninety-five MILLION U.S. equity “investors” do NOT give a shit if the markets are manipulated higher…in fact they most certainly love it. And why wouldn’t they? “Damn market keeps going higher and my damn wealth is shooting higher every month…must be the Fed, I just hate them!” LMAO! No, only ZH left-behinders hate the manipulation. The rest are cashing in on their Fed-given wealth and buying new BMWs for cash. All risk is gone and the Fed bankers are patting themselves on the back at how the economy has recovered thanks to their $5 T of loose money. A 100% success…the lemmings are borrowing and buying stuff. New SUVs by the millions, houses selling at bubble prices, the markets soaring…people are thrilled. They can take some of this unearned wealth and get new boats and I-Toys…all for “free”. Good paying jobs going away? Who cares, no need to work, just pour money into the no-risk markets and the Fed guarantees you will get rich. So, why is this a bad thing, again?
Not knowing where you live makes your statement a bit too broad. In my neck of the woods, folks are just trying to get by. The people who are buying while their wealth grows on a bedrock of lies, are not representative of the majority of sheep.
So, the problem is that if you aren't hooked in to the club, you suffer. Some ass getting rich off the suffering of others is a big problem that will create a mess the likes of which we have never seen.
Your Normalcy Bias is showing.
It is nothing to peg anything to when what is being manipulated is a game of charade from top to bottom, in nd out. People like the unbelievable, no?
The "market" has always been manipulated. This has been going on forever. Who was the first chairman of the SEC? Joseph Kennedy. He was appointed because he new ever trick in the book to manipulate the "market" because he had used them. How long have governments been cooking every data point and all the numbers they put out under the guise of innovation. Change the way you figure out the numbers if you don't like them. Change what you put into your numbers if you don't like them.
When they did away with mark to market it was just another way that fraud was made legal. The only people that say the "market" has been a true market are making a living out of convincing the sheep that its not manipulated.
I had a conversation with a very intelligent very successful trader back in the early part of 2009. I told him within a year the market would be going up and the talking heads would be back to their same old shit. For all the hand wringing and talk of how things should change when the market was on the lows, it would be business as usual a year later. He thought I was insane. He thought it was the end. Seems like I was right.
I never thought that the shitshow would go on for as long as it has, then again look at Japan.
Obviously, we are reaching the pinnacle of world decadence. No longer is the truth being hidden from the peons. The .000001% that rule the world know or at least believe that nothing can be done to overthrow their position. They created the triangle to fully explain how things work. The peons just wouldn't allow themselves to believe. Even if violence should erupt the world over they would simply wait for the outcome on their islands of leisure. As 95% of the worlds population turns to worm food they will smoke their cubans and languish in their comforts.
Hence, a thorough and complete list of all these "Islands" of relative tranquility while Rome burns, should be quite useful when the "Lunatic Fringe" begins exacting retribution.
The top predators-that-be correctly realized that humans are MORONS and will not act against them.
Even when the SHTF and many humans go insane, look what they do? They loot and burn local stores.
Humans are too stupid and too lame to take wise actions.
If humans weren't this way, the predators-that-be would have been hung decades ago. No correct that. Centuries ago. No correct that. Millennia ago.
If you are sane, get the hell outta dodge. FAR outta dodge.
AND DO IT NOW.
SocGen's admission is something like this: after everyone, who could, manipulated everything, they could, there is nothing meaningful left for manipulation. SO this is just a heads up; we will now manipulate the fringe. They are telling that let alone capitalism, the scope for even the crony capitalism seem to be over, at least as far as they can see.
Every asset class being manipulated except oil right Tyler? Joke
So you needed a tin foil hat to believe markets are manipulated? Give yourselves a big hand for being ahead of the rest of us.
I DID NOT sign off on Zero Hedge using the picture of me and my hat (proprietary design by the way)!! OK no big deal, but next time just ask.
Got to have that hat.
Can order on amazon and have it droned?
Here is an open source video so you can make your own. Your welcome. https://youtu.be/Hr6rp0HYgQ8?t=4m49s
Todays, world depression is designed, created and caused by: The criminal banksters and their government cronies that were not prosecuted in 2008.
“The economic crash of 2008” is the wrong context and a brainwash mental block.
“The successful bankster American mortgage crime of 2008 that crashed the American and world economy” should begin any conversation on the crash of the economy in 2008.
What was the cause of the 2008 crash? Was it bankster fraudulent mortgage loans and MERS fraud from 2000+ that was fraudulently spread around the world that finally caught up to reality in 2008?
Were the fraudulent bankster criminals and their fascist government cronies sent to prison? NO! The criminals black-mailed and bribed Congress to bail their dirty paper out with 700 billion dollars instead of throwing the criminals in prison and bailing out the American home owner for between 1 billion and 50 billion dollars! The criminal bankster crime spree should have ended in 2008.
Where did Congress get the 700 billion dollar bail out? Well, they borrowed the money from the banksters! Ha. Ha. Ha.
http://necsi.edu/news/2011/bailouts.html
The bankster criminals went on to create the derivatives scam that now looms over the world today at a godzillion dollars and riggin all the markets!