...and with this definitive explanation hopefully we can put the 
issue -- and Judy -- to rest.

Permanently.




--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anony_sleuth_ff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
>
> http://www.snopes.com/rumors/putcall.asp
> 
> Claim:   In the days just prior to the 11 September 2001, large
> quantities of stock in United and American Airlines were traded by
> persons with foreknowledge of the upcoming 9/11 attacks.
> 
> Status:   False.
> 
> Origins:   On 11 September 2001, four planes were hijacked and 
used in
> the Attack on America: American Airlines Flight 11 leaving Boston
> bound for Los Angeles, American Airlines Flight 77 leaving 
Washington
> bound for Los Angeles, United Airlines Flight 175 leaving Boston 
bound
> for Los Angeles, and United Airlines Flight 93 leaving Newark bound
> for San Francisco. Each of these planes was deliberately crashed,
> killing all on board — two into the World Trade Center towers, one
> into the Pentagon, and one into a field in Pennsylvania. (Only the
> delay in takeoff of UA Flight 93 and the actions of the alerted
> passengers on board prevented it from becoming yet another 
instrument
> of destruction resulting in an even greater loss of life.)
> 
> The operation had taken years to plan, and the perpetrators knew 
well
> in advance which airlines would be affected.
> 
> In the month prior to the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World 
Trade
> Center and the Pentagon, unusual trading activity involving 
American
> and United Airlines stock was noted by market analysts who at the 
time
> had no idea what to make of it. Wildly unusual discrepancies in the
> put and call ratio — 25 to 100 times normal — were reportedly 
observed
> in stock options of the two airlines. In one case, Bloomberg's 
Trade
> Book electronic trading system identified option volume in UAL 
(parent
> of United Airlines) on 16 August 2001 that was 36 times higher 
than usual.
> 
> (Options are wagers that the price of a 100-share block of a
> particular stock will rise or fall by a certain date. "Puts" are
> "shorts" — bets the stock price will fall. "Calls" are bets the 
price
> will rise. Thus, one who has reason to believe a particular 
company is
> about to suffer a terrible reversal of fortune would 
purchase "puts"
> against that entity's stock.)
> 
> But it was during the final few trading days (the market closes on
> weekends) that the most unusual variances in activity occurred.
> Bloomberg data showed that on 6 September 2001, the Thursday before
> that black Tuesday, put-option volume in UAL stock was nearly 100
> times higher than normal: 2,000 options versus 27 on the previous 
day.
> 
> On 6 and 7 September 2001, the Chicago Board Options Exchange 
handled
> 4,744 put options for United Airlines' stock, translating into 
474,000
> shares, compared with just 396 call options, or 39,600 shares. On a
> day that the put-to-call ratio would normally have been expected 
to be
> roughly 1:1 (no negative news stories about United had broken), it 
was
> instead 12:1.
> 
> On 10 September 2001, another uneventful news day, American 
Airlines'
> option volume was 4,516 puts and 748 calls, a ratio of 6:1 on yet
> another day when by rights these options should have been trading
> even. No other airline stocks were affected; only United and 
American
> were shorted in this fashion.
> 
> Accelerated investments speculating a downturn in the value of 
Morgan
> Stanley and Merrill Lynch (two New York investment firms severely
> damaged by the World Trade Center attack) were also observed.
> 
> The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
> (also known as the "9/11 Commission") investigated these rumors and
> found that although some unusual (and initially seemingly 
suspicious)
> trading activity did occur in the days prior to September 11, it 
was
> all coincidentally innocuous and not the result of insider trading 
by
> parties with foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks:
> Highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9/11
> generally rest on reports of unusual pre-9/11 trading activity in
> companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual
> trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an
> innocuous explanation. For example, the volume of put options —
> instruments that pay off only when a stock drops in price — surged 
in
> the parent companies of United Airlines on September 6 and American
> Airlines on September 10 — highly suspicious trading on its face. 
Yet,
> further investigation has revealed that the trading had no 
connection
> with 9/11. A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no
> conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts 
on
> September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying
> 115,000 shares of American on September 10. Similarly, much of the
> seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was 
traced to
> a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its
> subscribers on Sunday, September 9, which recommended these trades.
> The SEC and FBI, aided by other agencies and the securities 
industry,
> devoted enormous resources to investigating this issue, including
> securing the cooperation of many foreign governments. These
> investigators have found that the apparently suspicious 
consistently
> proved innocuous.
> Last updated:   11 December 2005
> 
> The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/rumors/putcall.asp
> 
> Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2006
> by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
> This material may not be reproduced without permission.
>     Sources Sources:
> 
>     Carpenter, Dave.   "Option Exchange Probing Reports of Unusual
> Trading Before Attacks."
>         The Associated Press.   18 September 2001.
> 
>     Schoolman, Judith.   "Probe of Wild Market Swings in Terror-
Tied
> Stocks."
>         [New York] Daily News.   20 September 2001   (p. 6).
> 
>     Toedtman, James and Charles Zehren.   "Profiting from Terror?"
>         Newsday.   19 September 2001   (p. W39).
>






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