Insider Trading? Could *someone* bet on a stock market fall?

[Junkdrawer]

Could that someone hold out until it happens?

Yet another perk of buying Congress?

Check this out:

Insider Trading in DC Just Got Easier

While almost no one was looking, a law making it easier for congressional and top executive branch staffers to engage in corrupt trading was signed into law Monday.

The law is a modification of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The modification was passed by unanimous consent by the House and the Senate last week with no debate or even discussion.

The STOCK Act, which became law just a year ago, was designed to discourage insider trading by members of Congress and top government officials. In addition to outlawing trading based on non-public information gleaned by government officials during the course of their public duties, the law required extensive disclosure of financial holdings by Congressional staffers and 28,000 senior executive branch employees.

The financial disclosures of these officials were to be posted in an online database open to the public.

....

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100647407

[TomClash]

1. Sure

Shorting equity indexes would be a really simple way.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Check out my updated OP

[onehandle]

2. Yes. My older brother used to invest on failure.

Then President Clinton's successes messed up his strategy.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Savvy!

[BlueStreak]

5. The lack of transparency is appalling. However,

Anybody betting on this is taking a pretty big gamble. The Wall Street people have already factored these shenanigans into the market pricing. They know that nothing really significant happens for a few weeks. This is a manufactured deadline. The teabaggers manufactured the crisis and Obama manufactured the date certain. Obama won that skirmish, but nobody on Wall Street is confused by that. They know it is all Kabuki theater.

Having said that, we do need to get it settled and move on, and today is as good as any day to do that. If it drags into November, the market won't like that. And there is no doubt the govt shutdown has caused some loss of economic momentum. If that continues, the market will have to adjust downward, but not necessarily this week.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Something to keep in mind during this brinkmanship.

Let's see how this plays out....

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Yep

they are shorting treasury bonds with "credit default swaps". Remember them?

http://ibnmoney.com/us/2013/10/09/us-default-swaps-trade-soars-on-debt-fear/

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Not the same thing.

Buying or selling a CDS is not the same thing as selling short.

[Kelvin Mace]

13. Agreed

But in the long run it is a bet using a dangerous "financial instrument" that the the U.S. will default. The potential for exacerbating a financial disaster is in the works since the CDS sellers can' t make good on the transaction and the government won't be around to bail them out this time.

[Sgent]

7. Yep

although if your betting on the debt ceiling issue you would probably use interest rate swaps or futures rather than get into the stock market.

[DeSwiss]

8. If one definition of insanity......

...is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Then the definition of political naïveté must be expecting a corrupt system and the corrupt people running it to commit acts of honesty and pass fair and honest legislation.

- K&R

[B Calm]

11. That's probably why they're doing what they're doing. It's all

about me, me, me with congressional republicans!

[Motown_Johnny]

12. and others might want the US to pay higher interest rates

There are always financial incentives