Mlsoft – wonder what reaction you have to this article by Saville regarding the PPT.
www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/milhouse070402.html (I couldn't get the link to post correctly, but if you paste it into the URL box it should work)
He acknowledges the PPT exists, and that the government intervenes in the bond, currency and gold markets, but he doesn’t think the PPT has been manipulating the equities markets. He says “we have seen absolutely no evidence that such intervention has occurred. In our view, those who are pointing fingers at the PPT are misreading the market.”
These are his main points:
1) during the 70s bear market, stock indexes often rallied in the face of bad news, but there was no PPT back then. Therefore, current bear market rallies are not necessarily attributable to the PPT. 2) Even though the PPT has the power to move equity markets, it apparently chose not to after 9/11 because the indexes were allowed to drop to extremely oversold conditions, which was naturally followed by a sizeable rally. 3) The market recently recovered after the worldcom news (the article was written a few weeks ago), not because the PPT intervened, but because the market had already priced in most of worldcom’s problems.
He also suggests that fund managers routinely manipulate the market in the short term, and I suppose he attributes most defenses of critical inflection points to private funds.
I assume your response would be that he just isn’t looking closely enough. I think you’ve said (#msg-478113) that you assume the PPT is at work when you see heavy buying activity on certain stocks, like msft and intc, through market orders under circumstances when it is clear that the buyers are trying to force the price up, not own the stocks.
I’m curious about your reaction to Saville’s points. Do you think the PPT propped things up immediately after 9/11, or what is he missing?
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
