"Misoft, as you have mentioned a former life as a broker, did the oldtimers ever speak of antecedents to the PPT?
While I am inclined to agree with those looking for a down September, I have to imagine that Wall Street will do anything and everything to produce/maintain higher year over year prices at points after the eleventh."
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aldaka.....
No, before 09/11 all we ever saw was "da boyz" working the markets for their benefit, and that is normal and to be expected. The first time I saw what I thought was government intervention was the week after 09/11 and for just a short while afterwards. I really did not think much about it at the time and frankly, thought the intervention was for the best. Even this year, the PPT has been relatively inactive until recently, with only occasional forays into the market at times when the selling got intense. The most recent round began overnight 07/23-07/24 when it looked like a financial crisis could occur (that one was was easily predictable), and resumed when the market was flooded with bad economic news while the financial markets were still vulnerable - but in a change of game plan, they have tended to intervene to stop every selloff since.
My understanding of their function was that they were to keep the US markets from meltdown and financial crises. To me, only the interventions after 09/11 and 07/24 met that criteria, and view the others as unnecessary and intrusive in the marketplace, especially the continued pump of the recent rally. Obviously, they have more access to information than we do and perhaps they know something we do not, but for now I believe this type of intervention goes beyond the scope of what they were intended to do. Ultimately, I expect it will fail, much in the same way that currency interventions almost always fail. If the economy does indeed turn back into a recession as I fear, the markets will go lower and the PPT will not be able to stop it.
Just my opinion, though.
mlsoft