What was the centrally-planned market's mission for today? Simple: as we tweeted 10 minutes before the close, it was to get the Dow Jones green to preserve mom and pop's confidence in manipulated markets.
3:40 pm RampCap has a simple job: green DJIA
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 12, 2013 [4]
Sure enough, the DJIA closed just barely in the green following the now traditional last half hour ramp, with literally the last push of the day sending it over the edge by a measly 3 points.
How did this happen? The chart below, courtesy of Kevin Henry's New York Fed equities trading desk (with Citadel execution) is all one needs for today's version of Friday humor.
Ramp the futures for a green cash close in the Dow Jones... then pull the rug on the futures.
[5]
And zoomed out.
[6]
If you aren't laughing, then the sucker at the table is you.