https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/08/sus...-might-have-generated-millions-in-profit.html Or how to make 4 millions starting with 156K, as explained by the Najarian brothers... There was also insiders selling stocks: "Three Equifax executives sold $1.8 million of their holdings of Equifax in early August, just days after the credit reporting company discovered the breach internally but more than a month before that breach was announced to the public. Regulatory filings show the executives sold at around $145 a share. The sales don't appear to be the type of regularly scheduled incremental sales that insiders typically use when selling their company holdings."
If the executives had any knowledge or possibility to have knowledge of the breach they are fools. What they do is public and of course they would be found out. The put transaction is more evidently suspect - I am sure this will be investigated to the fullest. It should be said that in that case as well the buyer of the puts must have been an absolute newbie because that transaction sticks out like sore thumb. In the cases of insider trading I recall where options were used every time it was someone trading in options where they had not ever or very rarely traded them before, they went through a different broker or bank than their usual one and the transaction vastly exceeded normal position sizes they traded. The presumption that you wont get caught when you leave such obvious fingerprints is truly naive. The very recent insider trading deal on Amazon led to the following - rather witty - statement from the SEC “As alleged in our complaint, Rezakhani boasted on social media that he could accurately predict Amazon’s financial performance,” Jina L. Choi, director of the SEC’s San Francisco regional office, said in a statement. “But he failed to predict that we would catch him and his accomplices in their illegal scheme.”
Yep the 3 executives "knew nothing" while selling nearly $2 million worth of stock.... And the other amusing fun fact of this entire situation is that the company knew on JULY 29th about the breach and only released the news on SEPTEMBER 7th!!!!!!! Amazing how these companies Fu$K the consumer day in and day out and no one does anything....this will be brushed off just like anything else...
I know it sounds harsh, but I'd like to see Equifax go out of business. They put millions of people at risk who never opted into their monitoring program. If you don't want them to release your credit report, you have to pay them. Instead, they should be forced to get written or verbal permission from each person that they release credit info on. That would stop most credit identity theft. They are also redundant. Why are 3 credit monitoring agencies needed? Seems like one would be enough.
Earlier today, before I saw this thread by Pek... I was gonna write a post in jest to the fellow that needs 900K in 3 years and use EFX puts as an example that it could happen. I was looking at the chart on the $135's for an example and saw that. Pretty blatantly obvious. I mean these things have no volume on them whatsoever. So whoever bought em is gonna have some serious explaining to do. Rest assured the FBI (working with the SEC) will be all over this one. No way they can't. Did they really think no one would notice?! Talk about a smoking gun... I'm not so sure the short trade is over on this one yet. I bet it drops more tomorrow off of that end of day bounce it got Friday. Who the hell is gonna take it long ya know? PE of 30... its already priced to perfection without all this. If that thing shows any strength pre-market tomorrow, I'm jumping back on the train. That put purchase is gonna get a lot more press this week. Somebody knew something and the SEC is gonna dig deep. This story is multi-faceted on several fronts and its just getting started, mark my word. Short this pig on any strength.
When I watch a movie I always put myself into the roles, what would I do? So let's say, I do have inside info and I do want to trade it, but I don't want to be obvious and get caught. I think the only way is to sacrifice money and play a spread, a strangle, straddle, whatever. The goal is plausible deniability. An outright directional bet is obviously suspicious. But if I am playing a straddle, I could say, hey I was just expecting a big move, I didn't know which way it was going to happen. Sure the ROI will be half, but that is a small price for avoiding jail... It also helps my explanation if I am generally a big player so I have such bets at least monthly...
If you're good with options -- it's almost like winning a small lottery with each trade, Talk about making a killing in the shock market, You don't need an ultra rare and unique black swan/insider trading situation like this to get rich, even relatively small or tiny and steady wins will do absolute wonders for a trading acct, Insider trading, or weird anomaly trading in the records, is so easy to detect. You have got to be a fool to think you can walk away completely undetected with your pockets stuffed with loot. and some clear duffel bags too. Whatever bullshit defense you can think of...is laughable.
Who knows, they may have a perfectly logical explanation perhaps through chart reading and TA? After all, some insiders sold stocks prior to the announcement and a smart chart reader or TA expert could figure out there might be something there. Or maybe it was the hackers who sold short?