Feds Crack Down On Traders "Spoofing" To Manipulate Prices Amid Record Number Of Cases

Federal regulators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are ramping up efforts to bust traders using a tactic known as "spoofing" to manipulate market prices, reports the Wall Street Journal, citing enforcement officials.

Earlier this year, the CFTC began receiving daily sets of market data from the world's largest futures exchange - the CME Group, which handles around 85% of all futures trading by volume.

Thanks to the data sharing arrangement, regulators have had unprecedented access to daily trading data with a one-day delay, giving them the ability to analyze trading activity for fraud. The result has been a record number of manipulation cases brought against traders. Regulators at the CFTC had previously relied on CME staff and whistleblowers to spot the practice.

The data-sharing agreement, effective as of February, comes as the CFTC and Justice Department both pursue traders engaged in spoofing, a practice outlawed by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. When spoofing, traders place fake orders to create the illusion of supply or demand, causing prices to swing up or down. The traders then profit from the move back as the market reverts to normal levels.

The CFTC brought a record 26 cases related to manipulative conduct and spoofing in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Several of those civil cases were accompanied by criminal charges filed by the Justice Department. Between 2009 and 2016, the average number of such cases brought was just five a year. -WSJ

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-31/feds-crack-down-traders-spoofing-manipulate-prices-amid-record-number-cases

Why I’m Investing $500 Million in Migrants

The Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2016

The world has been unsettled by a surge in forced migration. Tens of millions of people are on the move, fleeing their home countries in search of a better life abroad. Some are escaping civil war or an oppressive regime; others are forced out by extreme poverty, lured by the possibility of economic advancement for themselves and their families.

Our collective failure to develop and implement effective policies to handle the increased flow has contributed greatly to human misery and political instability—both in countries people are fleeing and in the countries that host them, willingly or not. Migrants are often forced into lives of idle despair, while host countries fail to reap the proven benefit that greater integration could bring.

Governments must play the leading role in addressing this crisis by creating and sustaining adequate physical and social infrastructure for migrants and refugees. But harnessing the power of the private sector is also critical.

Recognizing this, the Obama administration recently launched a “Call to Action” asking U.S. companies to play a bigger role in meeting the challenges posed by forced migration. Today, private-sector leaders are assembling at the United Nations to make concrete commitments to help solve the problem.

In response, I have decided to earmark $500 million for investments that specifically address the needs of migrants, refugees and host communities. I will invest in startups, established companies, social-impact initiatives and businesses founded by migrants and refugees themselves. Although my main concern is to help migrants and refugees arriving in Europe, I will be looking for good investment ideas that will benefit migrants all over the world.

This commitment of investment equity will complement the philanthropic contributions my foundations have made to address forced migration, a problem we have been working on globally for decades and to which we have dedicated significant financial resources.

We will seek investments in a variety of sectors, among them emerging digital technology, which seems especially promising as a way to provide solutions to the particular problems that dislocated people often face. Advances in this sector can help people gain access more efficiently to government, legal, financial and health services. Private businesses are already investing billions of dollars to develop such services for non-migrant communities.

https://www.georgesoros.com/2016/09/20/why-im-investing-500-million-in-migrants/

>>3703802

Panic and diversion

Susan Collins Reveals An Incident That ‘Really Scared’ Her During Kavanaugh Confirmation Controversy

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins revealed the details of an early October incident that prompted Capitol Police to assign her protection during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process, in an interview with the Washington Examiner published Thursday.

“I’d worked late til 9:30 p.m., and there was a man who had been waiting for me at my townhouse in the rain in the dark for hours,” Collins told the Examiner. “And that, I will tell you, really scared me.”

The Republican was one of the swing votes in confirming Kavanaugh. She waited until the day before the Oct. 6 vote to announce she would support Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Collins and her office received threats and even obscene items while she considered whether or not to vote to confirm Kavanaugh. She had assigned protection both in Washington, D.C., and at her home in Bangor, Maine, where protesters gathered on the weekends, reported the Examiner.

Collins and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, were both threatened by a New York man arrested on Oct. 19 for leaving them violent messages based on their support for Kavanaugh.

“I do feel more safe at this point,” Collins told the Examiner.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/02/susan-collins-really-scared-kavanaugh-confirmation/