The PPT In Action?

The trading patterns have been very weird since last Friday. It seemed like the markets were going to take a dive. All of a sudden the markets pare the loses.

I was listening to three different stations on radio this morning. And all of them thought it's going to be an interesting day (in a negative sense). Yet the market opens lower and starts paring their losses when the trading starts.

So could the PPT be doing this? It seems like PPT was a sleep on Thursday when the markets were down 2% (may have something to do with the Jet Lag from India Trip).

There has been more and more talk about the Plunge Protection Team. And each day the market seems to defy the odds and either goes up or does not go down as much as it should.

Here is a quote from Bill Fleckenstein's article. It seems odd that they were actually denying they were buying indexes.

An item that I felt folks would find most newsworthy is that the president's working committee on financial markets, known by some as the PPT, or Plunge Protection Team, now has about 20 outsiders who attend certain meetings to advise the committee. One of them is none other than noted short-seller Jim Chanos, who left Grant's conference early last Tuesday to attend a PPT meeting. In response to my question as to why the committee had chosen him and others, he cited one reason: that the panel was worried about adverse publicity and wanted to communicate that there was no nefarious buying of S&P futures, as is constantly rumored.

It could be that some hedge funds are doing this. But I find it hard to believe that a single hedge fund would have the power to manipulate the market.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a87VERwuZP8c&refer=bondheads

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index.php?a=14607

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/RecessionIsntAnIfButAWhen.aspx