Most Important Question of 9/11: The "Put Options"

[Wokeman]

Posted By: FarSight3
Just a question for you. I remember hearing about a HUGE short position on the airline stocks prior to 9-11. How come no one has brought that up again, and I am sure the SEC has records as to how purchased those short postitions. Any thoughts?

Thanks


Thank you for THIS QUESTION. I think it's the most important one around the 9/11 as further analyzis gives us lots of clues about MOTIVES and moreover may lead to those WHO REALLY WERE BEHIND THE 9/11...

First: What's a "put-option"? From Wikipedia:
A put option (sometimes simply called a "put") is a financial contract between two parties, the buyer and the seller of the option. The put allows the buyer the right but not the obligation to sell a commodity or financial instrument (the underlying instrument) to the seller of the option at a certain time for a certain price (the strike price). The seller has the obligation to purchase at that strike price, if the buyer does choose to exercise the option.


Now, if you know in advance that any company will lose on their stocks you can make such a "put" (You can do the opposite as well -this is then a "call option"). In simplier terms it's a kind of gambling where you can gain with some "insider knowledge" (which is forbidden by law and should be prosecuted - generally speaking...) huge amounts of money.

Now what about those "put-options" placed up to four days before the attack on the financial market, "betting" on the loss of stocks of certain companies. Wtch, that it was told to the publich that some of them "were not claimed"- so nobody showed up to collect the "jackpot" - which is ridicolous although - as I don't know NO BANKING HOUSE who would go into an "anonymous" deal - except for "protecting" a "Good client"...

From the "The Heidner Report on 911" at the7thfire.com

Here are the initially most obvious trades with the "unclaimed" payout:

Unclaimed Stock Options

Target...................................Put Options.....................Starting

Merrill Lynch & Co..........12,215.......................4 trading days before the attacks

Morgan Stanley..................2,157........................3 trading days
Dean Witter & Co

United Airlines....................4,744........................2 and 3 trading days

American Airlines..............4,516.......................one trading day



These are the data points one always sees in the news, but there were other trades – significant trades, in financial companies!


• "Citigroup Inc., which has estimated that its Travelers Insurance unit may pay $500 million in claims from the World Trade Center attack. It had a jump in trading of October options that profit if shares fall below $40 apiece. Almost 14,000 of those options contracts were traded from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 -- about 45 times the previous daily average. Citigroup shares fell $2.85 today to $39.60. "

• "Bear Stearns & Cos., where investors traded 3,979 contracts from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 on September options that profit if shares fall below $50. The previous average volume for those options was 22 contracts. Bear Stearns shares fell $3.79 today to $46.45. "

• "Marsh & McLennan Cos., the biggest insurance brokerage, which had 1,700 employees working in the World Trade Center. Traders on Sept. 10 exchanged 1,209 contracts on options that profit if company shares fall below $90 through the third week of September. Previously, 13 contracts had traded on an average day. Marsh & McLennan shares fell $2.50 today to $84.50.'

• "The Wall Street Journal reported on October 2 that the ongoing investigation by the SEC into suspicious stock trades had been joined by a Secret Service probe into an unusually high volume of five-year US Treasury note purchases prior to the attacks.

The Treasury note transactions included a single $5 billion trade. As the Journal explained: “Five-year Treasury notes are among the best investments in the event of a world crisis, especially one that hits the US. The notes are prized for their safety and their backing by the US government, and usually rally when investors flee riskier investments, such as stocks.”

The value of these notes, the Journal pointed out, has risen sharply since the events of September 11. The article went on to quote Michael Shamosh, a bond-market strategist for Tucker Anthony Inc., who said, “If they were going to do something like this they would do it in the five-year part of the market. It’s extremely liquid, and the tracks would be hard to spot.” The SEC has been extremely tight-lipped about its probe, in which it has enlisted securities firms and government agencies in Europe, Canada and other countries. But on Tuesday the Investment Dealers Association, a trade association for the Canadian securities industry, posted on its web site a list sent by the American SEC of 38 stocks. The US agency had asked the Canadians to look into trading in these stocks between August 27 and September 11. As soon as US officials became aware of the Internet posting, they demanded that the Investment Dealers Association yank it from the web site, and the Canadian organization complied. However, reporters and others were able to copy the list before it was pulled.

The list includes the parent companies of American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, Southwest, United and US Airways, as well as Carnival and Royal Caribbean cruise lines, aircraft maker Boeing and defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Several insurance companies are on the list—American International Group, Axa, Chubb, Cigna, CNA Financial, John Hancock and MetLife.

The SEC list also includes several big companies that were tenants in the collapsed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center: investment firms Morgan Stanley, the complex’s largest occupant; Lehman Brothers; Bank of America; and the financial firm Marsh & McLennan. Other major companies listed include General Motors, Raytheon, LTV, WR Grace, Lone Star Technologies, American Express, Bank of New York, Bank One, Citigroup and Bear Stearns. [Suspicious trading points to advance knowledge by big investors of September 11 terror attacks, Barry Grey, 10/5/2001]


It is also fair to speculate that the breadth of the pre-attack investments trades was far broader than ever admitted to by the investigators. The general literature suggests trading in four companies, using one mentioned bank. These four, however, seem to be the “unclaimed’ trades – suggesting a potentially larger number of successful trades having taken place. The reality was far greater than generally reported. Trades were placed across the globe, far in excess of the few million dollars of “unclaimed” trades. More simply, a lot of the trades were successfully claimed.


"ABC World News reported on Sept. 20, "Jonathan Winer, an ABC News consultant said, 'it's absolutely unprecedented to see cases of insider trading covering the entire world from Japan, to the U.S., to North America, to Europe."


"How much money was involved? Andreas von Bülow, a former member of the German Parliament responsible for oversight of Germany's intelligence services estimated the worldwide profits amount at $15 billion, according to Tagesspiegel on Jan. 13. Other experts have estimated the profit at $12 billion. CBS News gave a conservative estimate of $100 million."

"According to Phil Erlanger, a former Senior Technical Analyst with Fidelity , and founder of a Florida firm that tracks short selling and options trading, insiders made off with billions (not mere millions) in profits by betting on the fall of stocks they knew would tumble in the aftermath of the WTC and Pentagon attacks." [ http://www.erlangersqueezeplay.com ]

"Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert estimated that more than $100 million in illegal transactions appeared to have rushed through the WTC computers before and during the disaster."

During that week, demand for almost 86 tonnes of gold, or almost $900 million dollars was created by demands in the Far East. These purchase did not go into the jewelry market, but were primarily targeted at investment hedge funds.

"While hedge funds are a rapidly growing part of the financial industry, the fact that they operate through private placements and restrict share ownership to rich individuals and institutions frees them from most disclosure and regulation requirements that apply to mutual funds and banks. Funds legally domiciled outside the main financial market countries are generally subject to even less regulation." [Hedge Funds: What Do We Really Know? Barry Eichengreen, Donald Mathieson ,©1999 International Monetary Fund]

It is proposed that to launder the profits of the anonymous trades, the profits from the attack on the World Trade Center were shifted into gold, then hedge funds- both of which are easy to conceal ownership with, especially in places like Thailand and Vietnam, which is where this gold went. With the range of leverage currently used by financial institutions (between 100:1 and 400:1, although it does go as high as 600:1), it might be fair to say the people responsible for this crime converted it into a leveraging of between $75 and $200 Billion dollars. Additionally, as will be discussed in Section 6.7, there were individuals like Adnan Khashoggi and institutions like Deutsche Bank Securities that may have made other types of investments that benefited from the effects of 9/11.

These options suggest a number of observations being made in advance about who stood to “lose” or “gain” during the aftermath of the attack:

• The first target and primary target (as determined by the level of investment and number of days preceding the attack) was Merrill Lynch.

• The secondary targets were Morgan Stanley and insurance companies.

• It appears as an afterthought that someone decided the airlines stood to lose as well. It is very possible that these airline trades were not placed by the true criminals, but were the product of normal, but sporadic trading. Given that nearly all airlines were spiked during the time period – not just those involved in the attack – the following explanation makes more sense.


"Adam Hamilton of Zeal LLC, a consulting company that does research on markets worldwide, has crunched the numbers and recently told Insight magazine:
"The market was in bad shape in the summer and early fall, and you know there were a lot of people who believed that there would be a sell-off in the market long before Sept. 11. For instance, American Airlines was at $40 in May and fell to $29 on Sept. 10; United was at $37 in May and fell to $31 on Sept. 10. These stocks were falling anyway, and it would have been a good time to short them." The downward trend in the airline stocks was backed up in the pre-Sept. 11 trading picture."

"Insight reported that there were repeated spikes in put options on American Airlines during the year before Sept. 11 (June 19 with 2,951 puts, June 15 with 1,144 puts, April 16 with 1,019 and Jan. 8 with 1,315 puts). In the same period, United Airlines had slightly more action (Aug. 8 with 1,678 puts, July 20 with 2,995, April 6 with 8,212 and March 13 with 8,072)." [Dave Eberhart, “Still Silence From 9-11 Stock Speculation Probe”, NewsMax, 6/3/2002]


On the other hand, almost always, if investors believe the airline industry is due to drop, they will short all three major carriers. This was not the case here because Delta did not see spikes similar to UAL and AMR.


• It appears financial companies were the focal point of investors with apriori knowledge of the attack on the WTC. These criminals were sophisticated investors, with inside knowledge which identified the insurers of these building and financial targets. Inside knowledge of this sort might easily be established by a competitor who worked that market – a competitor like Allianz.

• The attack was on financial companies (especially investment banking) in the World Trade Center as well as financial companies in general, including Citibank, Bear Stearns & Cos., Marsh & McLennan Cos. American Express, Bank of New York, and Bank One, which are not in the World Trade Center. The plan was to create an event that would shake the American economy to its core, and cripple the highly leveraged investment banks. In another of a long list of strange co-incidents, all of these banks have a unique and special relationship with the President Bush when it comes to economic policy.


"President George W. Bush played host to the heads of several top US banks at a private meeting in the White House this week, in an effort to persuade the markets of his commitment to deficit reduction.

Mr. Bush's invitation underscores his desire to secure Wall Street's support for the ambitious economic reform agenda planned for his second term. Vice President Dick Cheney, political strategist Karl Rove, chief of staff Andrew Card, outgoing commerce secretary Don Evans and the White House economic team were also present for the talks with the heads of Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wachovia, Credit Suisse First Boston, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and American Express." [Bush Holds Private Meeting With Bank Chiefs, Copyright 2004, InvestmentsMagazine.com, 11/18 2004]

Interestingly, if oil was the objective as claimed by so many, someone might have invested in ‘Call options’ on companies who would obviously benefit –such as Halliburton. This didn’t happen, because an invasion of Iraq was not contemplated....

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The thingy with the OIL came just AFTERWARDS - so as I claimed - the 9/11 was used by the Govt. - not necessarily "pulled" - as you can speculate from all what is written above...

Enuf said? Already choking? And! Do you still believe in the fairy-tale about this ATTA AND HIS 19 THIEVES?

Sorry, then even I can't help you...

War on Error, Part 911:"Put all your Options on the Table"!
Far Sight 3