Juggling Dynamite

Thin edge of a very big wedge here, but it’s a start.  Prosecutors are starting to make examples of the little-guy, low hanging fruit, but have so far made no effort against the massive financial firms that have virtually all been engaged in various forms of HFT manipulation.  Funny they started with a Canadian….See:  U.S. says Canadian man used high-speed trading to manipulate market.

U.S. authorities opened a new chapter in policing high-speed stock trading on Tuesday when they charged a Canadian man with fraud for manipulating stock prices through a process called “layering,” according to prosecutors.

The case is the first of its kind to be brought against a trader in the stock market, the authorities said in press releases.

Federal criminal prosecutors in New Jersey charged Aleksandr Milrud, 50, who they said was from Ontario, with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate civil case against him. He was arrested at a home he owns near Miami and was scheduled to appear in federal magistrate court in Miami later on Tuesday.

…The first U.S. federal criminal case stemming from the practice of “spoofing” was filed on Oct. 2 against high-frequency commodities trader Michael Coscia.“

Must clean up the cesspool that public markets have been allowed to become, if we are to restore any credibility to the modern financial system.

Danielle was a guest today with Kerry Lutz on The Financial Survival Network, talking about recent developments in the world economy and markets.  You can listen to an audio clip of the segment here.

As Dr Copper ‘gave’ $2.60 a pound this afternoon–another day down more than 4% (-38% from its 2011 ‘stimulus’ rebound)–mean reversion that was, no doubt, slowed by future’s trading, hoarding and rigging, is finally underway. Commodities, of nearly every stripe, are re-coupling with the downturn in global growth.

This big picture chart of the Commodities Index (CRB) since 1990 offers some perspective on what large price declines in the world’s staples historically have signaled about the global economy and risk markets.  Ignoring such signals has never been a wise strategy for growth and stock bulls in the past.