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Goldman Sachs Trading Source Code In the Wild?
Hangtime writes "The world's most valuable source code could be in the wild. According to a report by Reuters, a Russian immigrant and former Goldman Sachs developer named Sergey Aleynikov was picked up at Newark Airport on July 4th by the FBI on charges of industrial espionage. According to the complaint, Sergey, prior to his early June exit from Goldman, copied, encrypted and uploaded source code inferred to be the code used by Goldman Sachs to process in real-time (micro-seconds) trades between multiple equity and commodity platforms. While trying to cover his tracks, the system backed up a series of bash commands so he was unable to erase his history, which would later give him away to Goldman and the authorities. So the question is: where are the 32MB of encrypted files that Sergey uploaded to a German server?
Oh look: now they check FBIs intel on LinkedIn to see if they got it right.
mov ax,4c00h
int 21h
I can't believe that Goldman's algorithmic trading code is more valuable than its list of root passwords to governments all over the world...
Even more interesting is in the second article that notifies us that Goldman Sachs has been removed from the NYSE 15 Most Active Members Firms Weekly Report. GS had been #1 the week before and now they're not even on it. These fifteen firms alone represent about 98% of all trades with the NYSE. So what happened?
The author mentions some things but gives no clear motivation for GS hiding their stats. I would speculate that if one of your developers copied your code and uploaded it to a server discretely, you could have that in your logs and not notice it for days or weeks. But if he then did something to your system to ensure his new employer's ownership of that code you wuold notice that pretty damn fast I imagine. Sergey Aleynikov sounds like a brilliant coder but maybe he's not so smart on legal issues, is it possible he completely hobbled GS to please his new employer? Are they keeping their transaction report hush hush so investers don't worry? Was Sergey Aleynikov thinking he could sell the code and the rights to the code? After all, if he could remove all copies of the code from GS how could they take people to court over the code without a local copy to prove ownership?
If GS remained #1, they would have left themselves on the list. I presume that something else related to this has gone wrong with their operation, the news just hasn't broke yet.
My work here is dung.
It's funny... I normally find myself loathing companies like Goldman Sachs for hyper-selfish capitalism, finding ways to get rich at taxpayer expense, etc.
But then, when I see industrial espionage by Russians, Chinese, Israelis, etc. against those very same corporations, a sense of nationalist anger makes me forget my anti-corporatist anger. Somehow I completely fail to have a sense of schadenfreude for the corporations that I normally hate, and I don't know why.
Being human is strange.
Pure evil partnered with Linux?
I'm pretty sure that can't happen. I'm going to pray to Linus for guidance.
I can't read the original article so I might be inferring something incorrect. But who on earth though it was a good idea to give internet access to someone with access to valuable source code? Whatever happened to role based access restrictions?
Its hardly surprising that this sort of code is highly valuable but the challenge is surely going to be proving that it was actually stolen. If they have a bash history that doesn't include the IP addresses but just shows that he created a tar ball then where is the proof that he actually stole anything at all?
The original is of course still there, what he took is a copy, so you can't show something is missing.
They currently don't know where it has gone, so they can't prove that a copy was moved outside the firewall successfully
If he hasn't yet sold the stuff on they can't prove there was a financial benefit linked to the theft
So how will they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that some actual theft has gone on?
Its not like he has just lobbed it on Bit-torrent or posted it to Wikileaks. What he has done is taken a copy of the code, which means its Intellectual Property and copyright issues rather than "simple" theft and therefore they really need to prove (surely) that he has done something with the code.
Should be interesting to see how the police "generate" and prove the evidence on this one.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
...or, perhaps last week was a short trading week which cut into the already-low trading volume. Did you by chance compare the overall volume levels when you came up with your theory?
I am betting you didn't because if you had, you'd see that the volume last week was way lower than the norm.
More likely, lots of GS traders just took the week off and went on vacation.
Probably people that would do something similar, will never touch that code, for fear of be "tainted".
And anyway.. most code create new stuff that is worthy a patent. But not because most programmers are genius, but because the patent system is crap. No one sould care about what is on that code, because any professional can recreate the code anyway with the same features. There are not "sacred" code in this world. More the other stuff... Is really hard to make other people look at your code. The bussines type of guys dont want to look at your code. The users don't want to look at your code. Often, others programmers don't want to look at your code. Maybe is more valuable and interesting the features, and the documentation, the analysys of the problem, than the fucking source code. I do like to read source code, but I am one in a million (of programmers) and theres probably around 7 million programmers, so probably theres only another 7 dudes like me :-I
-Woof woof woof!
GS's code for program trading is all written in a proprietary programming language called slang and relies on a proprietary database (secdb).
The install for that is a hell of a lot bigger than 32 MB, so this is probably just a few trading algorithms that a pissed-off developer has copied away.
It will be largely useless without the slang and secdb components and will be totally unsafe to trade off without a sufficient source of historic data and reference data, correctly formatted and loaded into secdb.
The idea that this leak is likely to be in any way materially damaging to GS is frankly a joke to anyone with even a passing knowledge of how these systems really operate.
But don't let that get in the way of your paranoia about how the world works.
"Oh look: now they check FBIs intel on LinkedIn to see if they got it right."
Aleynikov (pronounced Aley-nick-off) stole the code and Tyler Durden was all over the story a week ago.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
The article keeps referring to what was stolen as "codes". Does that mean "source code" or are they talking about some kind of access codes or authentication keys or something, like the way people call their bank PIN their "secret code" ?
Without the login codes to https://www.illuminati-hq.org/financialserver/tomorrows-stockprices.php
Considering that they got about $13 billion of our taxpayer money as part of the AIG bailout, I'd say that software belongs in part to us too.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"The world's most valuable source code could be in the wild."
Duke Nukem Forever? Oh joy.
Down here in Brasil, there is an interesting card game called Truco ("trick me"/"triple up" portmanteau in Portuguese) -- every college student in my State plays it :-D One of the most interesting rules is: "you can cheat as long as nobody catches you in the act". The financial market is based exactly on the same rule.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
If I were a rival to Goldman Sachs I would be terrified of someone offering me Goldman's source code. If I use it and Goldman find out then I'm in a world of trouble. If I use it but Goldman don't know for a bit AND the person who offered it knows I used it, then they can blackmail me. Even if I don't use it there could be expensive legal battles to prove my innocence ("Exhibit A shows the same loop variable counter is used in these two different source code bases." "?!"). How do I know it's not a trap? It would be like someone offering the secret of Coke to Pepsi - what do you expect Pepsi to do? Use the secret? What if they like their product more?
Obviously there must be another angle if this situation is true to drive someone to actually do it. I just can't figure it out at the moment.
Just notice the sentence with the word bash. I'm sure Goldman Sachs runs Linux. Take that M$! You are your .NET, C# stinking attitude!
I worked for a financial services company that had similar types of systems. The legal department and security people were always concerned about people stealing our source code.
But their fears were unfounded. Why? Because the source code is highly customized code that not only implements thoroughly non-standards-based algorithms, but is also tightly coupled to underlying hardware/software platforms (and the non-standardized APIs of their peer systems). The result: you can't run it anywhere but on the infrastructure of the company for which it was built. Sure, you could pull out a subroutine here or there. But overall, it's pretty worthless stuff.
Humorously, we had a large, difficult, multi-year project to port our code to a newer hardware platform (same O.S. and language tools). I joked that we should post all our source code on the web for free unencumbered download, and if somebody could get it to run on the newer (or any other) platform, we could pay them $2 million for their effort and still come out way ahead in the deal. Everybody laughed and agreed that that would be a dream come true.
$ sftp && kill -9 `/sbin/pidof `/bin/basename $SHELL``
Unless the shell is modified to append commands to the history file *before* executing them (as far as I know, no shell does that out of the box), or the system is hardened (exec() logging etc.), this will take care of any history logs.
This is Slashdot. Common sense is futile. You will be modded down.
So the question, where are the 32MB of encrypted files that Sergey uploaded to a German server?
Rapidshare?
Anyone notice the 2nd article's author's name? Wouldn't it be nice if this bit of info exposed the market manipulations that led us down the road of $124 barrel oil? Tyler Durden eat your heart out, maybe Robin Hood will save the day!
sigh...that shit only happens in the movies.
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
it would be the insider trading from hell.
What if this is all a ruse? What if the source code released isn't the real source? What if, when people start making trades based on it, they find that the advantage goes to GS because it was specifically designed and released to mislead?
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
I think it's wonderful that the code has been reintroduced to the wild. Looks like their captive breeding program has been quite a success!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Flashback to a meeting with a bunch of douchebag MBAs 4 years ago at Goldman Sachs:
MBA Dbag 1: "We'll save so much money by moving these coding jobs overseas to Russia! American coders are getting too expensive!"
MBA Dbag2: "I don't see any drawbacks. Let's do it. As long as they can't outsource us playing phonetag and having meetings with each other all day, right?"
'This week's NYSE Program Trading report was very odd .. what was shocking was the disappearance of the #1 mainstay of complete trading domination (i.e., Goldman Sachs) from not just the aforementioned #1 spot, but the entire complete list. In other words: Goldman went from 1st to N/A in one week'
US v Sergey Aleynikov, Violations of 18 U.S.C $$ 1832(a) (2), 2314, & 2
"ALEYNIKOV claimed, however, that he only intended to collect "open source" files on which he had worked, but later realized he had obtained more files than he intended. ALEYNIKOV aslo admitted that he has uploaded files from his work desktop from home. ALEYNIKOV claimed he did not distribute any of the proprietary software that he obtained from the Financial Institution, and further claimed that he has abided by an agreement he entered into with his new employer not to use any unlicensed software"
davecb5620@gmail.com
Crooks aren't always that smart. The guy may have the plan of "I take code, sell it to rival, I make millions," having not thought the practical matter through. As another poster noted, the Pepsi/Coke thing DID happen and what they did was contact the FBI.
While this isn't quite the same situation here, I'm betting the result would be the same. No legit corp wants to be involved in shit like this. It just wouldn't make sense and you'd stand to lose WAY more than you'd stand to gain. So they'd ignore the guy or, more likely, go to the authorities.
He probably has essentially stolen something that is worthless because there is no market. In theory it has a high value because it is special and was expensive to make but in practice nobody probably wants to buy it and as such it isn't worth anything.
Now I can download their system with bittorrent and become billionaire in seconds!
Is bash history admissible in court? really? does the 5th amendment apply, it might be considered testimony against ones self.
fun....
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
I believe disabling bash's history logging into a file is as easy as typing :
HISTFILE=
at the prompt. In other words, he was probably one command line away from being detected..
Germany?
We can finally know what goes in the ????? before PROFIT!
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
They weren't forced, they were part of the insider deals to get the loot. What backfired on them was the executive bonus compensations limitations proposals that came along later. They were perfectly willing to take money they didn't have and use it to acquire other assets initially.
Is this an argument against H1 Visa's?
Based on the Rolling Stones article I was able to reverse engineer the core Goldman Sachs trading algorithm:
#include
int main( int argc, const char* argv[] )
{
pump();
dump();
}
Had it been Vista, this guy would have been busted long back by, "You are trying to steal the valuable source code from your employer. Cancel or allow?" dialog.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If we leak the source code, maybe we can take their economy down too. Less competition. Heck, let's give it to the BRICs. We can have a level playing field of algorithmically generated idiocy.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
...but I guess it's "laughing at" rather than "laughing with"
I would say they are surfing in the cloud
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
Cry me a river. Their "secret" is not their trading programs, it's their revolving door with governments and total regulatory capture. Is it just coincidence some years ago their CEO was leading the charge to "deregulate" so that Goldman Sachs could raise leverage limits to insane danger levels? Then years later the same man (Hank Paulson) is the Treasury chief issuing bailouts to his own company? Who give a hoot about the code? But yeah code is meant to be free, so if it's out there then good.
Is this valuable because they paid too much for it, or because it was heavily involved in putting our economy in the tank and they would prefer that the world not see what the bubble was based on, lest their be lawsuits?
Why is this software so valuable? It is so valuable because of the complexity of the financial markets!
Why are the financial markets so complex?
Are they unnecessarily complex?
Does the complexity fairly serve US citizens?
Does the complexity fairly serve US businesses?
These are burning questions that must be addressed, but are being ignored.
You mean the worthless code from a /failed/ Goldman Sachs? The possibilities are endless.
Bash?? Really?? Then i guess we don't have to ask the age old question... What OS do their systems run??
When my Karma level reaches 0 I feel in piece with the Universe
All I see now is: bond... stock... low-yield bank deposit.
AFAIK, the guy simply stole the code for an "algo" - an engine that takes trading decisions based on a set of formulae. These things take a good year to develop and have an active life of a few weeks until someone figures out the algorithms and starts trading against them.
This is not news, this stuff exists since years. The theft isn't a surprise either, there is quite a bit of competition in that small market. There is AFAIK only a limited set of people who can develop this, put it into live use and make a profit for as long as it works.
Here is a copy of the code in it's entirety -
Buy Low
Sell High
"But this one goes to 11!"
truly a pearl of great price, I'm sure.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
There is a long article in Rolling Stone magazine this month, The Great American Bubble Machine, alleging that banks control the U.S. government and that Goldman Sachs is one of the leaders of the corruption. Anyone wanting to know more about how the financial corruption of the U.S. government is operated should read the article. The article alleges that Goldman Sachs will use any manipulation whatsoever to get money.
This Slashdot comment, The Investment Banking cohorts JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are the **huge** winners, discusses some of the issues. The Slashdot comment links to the Rolling Stone article, but that copy of the article has been removed.
According to the Rolling Stone article, Goldman Sachs makes money mostly through corruption, not investment insight. Your tax money may be their profit: Goldman Sachs takes $12B Bailout, Hands out $14B Bonuses. (The article lists British pounds, the Digg article lists dollars.)
The corruption is not new. For example, see the May 13, 2002 article in Business Week, How Corrupt Is Wall Street? New revelations have investors baying for blood, and the scandal is widening Quote: "Consider Enron, which has paid $323 million to Wall Street in underwriting fees since 1986, according to Thomson. Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) pocketed $69 million of that..." Enron, of course, went bankrupt when it was discovered the company was dishonest.
Beginning in 2002, Warren Buffett began very publicly calling derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction". That particular part of the corruption was caused by the removal of laws designed to prevent fraud, at the beginning of George W. Bush's first term. Nothing was done to reinstate the laws, and that's why we are suffering now. Why was nothing done? Numerous articles say the corruption was allowed to happen because Goldman Sachs people control the U.S. government's Federal Reserve Bank. To give a small indication of the level of corruption, the "Federal Reserve Bank" is not federal, there is nothing in reserve, and it is not a bank.
The laws of the U.S. government should not allow a trading market designed in such a way that proprietary source code gives an advantage.
Why is it so valuable? It most likely takes decisions based on random distributions. I can do that, too. Can I get a 100 million bonus?
"Are you referring to the repeal of Glass-Steagall?"
No. It was a lot more subtle than that.
I don't have time now to find references. Maybe later.
A measly 32MB of code leaked, which could have valuable algorithms.
A ex-employee walks over to bank B on promise of $$$ and has all the algorithms in his head.
Why should Goldman Sachs be allowed to take money from people who don't have the same time or equipment?
If you can't afford to play, don't.
What if having the code allowed you to analyse it for ways to game the system?
Dood, don't you get it?? The system has been gamed for some time and is ever increasing in being gamed! Goldman Sachs (and other members of the bankster cartel) does mass speculation on the oil/energy futures market through the exchange they founded with Morgan Stanley and the oil cartel: ICE (InterContinental Exchange), as well as the precious metals market (along with JPMorgan Chase & Morgan Stanley, et al.), soft commodities market and on and on.....
With the new so-called "cap-and-trade" being gamed for expanding the derivatives and securitication market for futures in carbon offsets and carbon dioxide emissions allowances, the GS code is the final alchemy. (And the possibilities for entirely new forms of speculation between emissions/carbon offsets AND oil/energy futures is simply mind boggling!)
As far as gaming, one need only look at the outline for this anti-global warming legislation (cap-and-trade) and how it's being handled: via ICE US Trust (which is owned by ICE and Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase along with other banksters) and the Chicago Climate Exchange (which is owned by ICE) and utilizing the DTCC (majority owned by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley & JPMorgan Chase). And those derivatives and swaps will be "priced" by ICE Trust and Markit Group (which was originally financed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and BofA). And to review, ICE is owned by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the oil cartel.
Beginning to see the big picture??????
The easy answer is to close the market, or to limit anyone to two trades per day (or one trade an hour, or something like that), but that will likely not fly.
The easiest answer would be for everyone to wise up and pull all their money out of the market.
I'd like to see the banks keep playing if everyone else takes all their chips and goes home. We might even get back to a stable market instead of the "thing" that got created ever since the heyday of the Day Trader in the '90s. :/
One of the interesting parts of the book "My Life as a Quant" by Emanuel Derman was the part where he compares the culture at Goldman to the culture at Soloman. He basically says that when it would come time to publish financial models, theories, etc., at Goldman there was relatively little obfuscation compared to other firms. I wonder how much of the theory is already publicly available, just not in code form. Between the two, I would think the models/theory are the much more valuable part, but depending upon the quality of the code, it may not be that easy to understand what they were doing.
No, you don't get it, guy, it's about the code for the mass speculation they've been doing. It's not about trading fraud - although speculation and naket short selling is supposed to be against the law (as if they exist in this plutocracy???). Thieves are ripping off the super-thieves.
Ok, here's a paranoid idea.
The real fear, and the reason that the government moved so quickly to try to get a lid on this, is that the Goldman program trading system probably contained Plunge Protection [tm] code, at the request of the government. The idea would be to use Goldman's massive program trading volume to either cause, or mask, intraday instability and achieve "up" closes on critical days, or around the release of critical numbers. That's the "proprietary" secret that can't get out, or the whole game is up.
I bet they're in Germany.
Found a post on ACM by someone with same name as the accused. Looked like a person with research background in Neural Networks. No idea if it is the same person, but it would be intriguing to me if Goldman Sachs was using neural networks for trading.
One interesting facet: if two or more counterparties in a market had neural networks that were trained to coordinate and cooperate in ways that would violate trading rules (e.g. like bridge players sharing info through actions), would the company be liable if the neural networks had developed these exchanges by themselves? In other words, would it be an instrumentality for violating the law if it learned, on its own, to violate the law, and the programmers / administrators "had no idea" it was doing that?
Let's assume GS's trading system uses learning algorithms to generate new rules. This is a very logical assumption unless you want developers tweaking the code year after year, day after day.
In that case, it's not the code that generates the rules, nor the data it uses to generate the rules, nor the engine that runs the rules and interfaces the markets that is valuable: its the current state of the optimized rules themselves that has immediate exploitability by criminals.
If you know GS's system is going to react to market behavior that does X by doing Y, then you can exploit that to make money off it to GS's detriment.
And an interesting twist. The accused referred to the code as "open source." That might indicate that he thinks it isn't copyrighted. If the rules [code] were generated by software itself, such as a learning system, there is a colorable argument that there isn't the necessary quantum of authorship for copyright under U.S. law. Naturally this wouldn't encompass other claims, like those based in trade secrets, employment Ks, etc.
To recap, the state of rules generated by the learning system would be far more valuable [and dangerous in enemy hands] than the underlying engine and database of historical data. In fact, those rules would be the crown jewels.
I'd add the above is 100% pure speculation based on inferences and some expertise in the area. (No inside knowledge of GS.)
Sorry to respond to myself, but to add ...
32 MB seems like a nice sized "chunk" to be an image of an on-die cache.
The size of the file is so conveniently close to a power of 2 to suggest to me that this is an image of RAM. (L2 cache?)
Again, I'm suggesting that a snapshot of the core rules generated by a learning system would be more useful than the framework it would run on.
The basic story is correct. I didn't have time to do more thorough research for better links.
This is a better article, in some ways: US banks owe billions in pay, pensions to execs-WSJ. Quote: "For instance, nine banks paid out an estimated $50 billion in bonuses in 2007..." That's Billion, not million.
"The rolling stone article is conspiracy drivel..."
Thoughts:
1) The linked article is not the article published on paper in Rolling Stone, although confusingly it has the same name.
2) A Slashdot comment is not meant to be a complete discussion of anything. A Slashdot comment can alert you to the need to do further research.
3) The actual Rolling Stone article in the paper edition only says things that have been reported elsewhere.
4) The bankers certainly knew there would be a crash, and that they would profit from the crash, and that the crash would be very destructive to everyone else.
5) Matt Taibbi's article, The 52 Funniest Things About The Upcoming Death of The Pope lacks any humor. It's just stupid. In number 26, he guesses that the pope lives, and he dies. The point of the article seems to be that the pope gets less respect now; a big difference from 50 years ago. But it's a terrible article.
6) What is important is not what someone said, but the facts.
During the time of the oil price increase, the supply of oil went up a small amount, and the demand went down by a tiny amount. There should have been a tiny price decrease.
However it was accomplished, it was market manipulation. I don't have time to supply links now.
Listen I am going to drop a huge bombshell on how GS makes their money and it has nothing to do with source code or trading. Ready?
... wait for it ... nothing. Call it Cap 'n Trade, make people think it will help environment, knowing that in truth it will not cut back on global pollution, that it will ship manufacturing to other countries along with jobs. Tell people it doesn't tax them and will create jobs (I mean with all the money GS execs will be making they can higher more gophers to get them coffee and they will be going out in NYC to eat expensive meals and that will employ aspiring actors ... I mean waiters). Don't tax/charge people directly just tax companies, services and products the people cannot do without. When prices go up on those things blame the very companies that GS and US federal government are robbing with a pen (guns are so small time) and say it is their ... wait for it ... "selfish greed". Have system in place so the shares of nothing you are trading become more and more rare over time to ensure you get larger and larger pay outs and hope US public is to stupid to vote out every paid politician you had in your pocket to vote for it. Rememeber avoid and deflect, blame the other side. ... wait for it ... "the children". If person is using slashdot then mod them -1 TROLL.
Step 1: Buy Republicans
Step 2: Hedge investment and buy Democrats
Step 3: Create illusion that there is a difference between above to avoid discovery that you own both. Get people to vote for their party each election, one thing you don't want is for people catch on and vote against all incumbents which you are heavily invested into and who have been there long enough to feel comfortable bending rules or outright breaking law.
Step 4: Make money trading stocks, bonds and commodities using leverage from 1,2,3 and 5.
Step 5: If nobody to buy, have former GS executives run. See Corzine - D - NJ Governor and Paulson - R - Former Treasury Secretary.
Step 6: If GS fails to make money on step 4, get politicians to bail you out indirectly to avoid blame. For example get them to bailout your failing investment AIG, then have AIG kick you back the $20 billion you gave them. Sure take direct bailout money, but give it back should public try to regulate GS salaries or demand transparency.
Step 7: Act like you are better at making money because you are really really smart and it has nothing to do with the fact that you are in a position to change the rules. Look down on little people and small businesses trying to compete while playing by rules.
Step 8: As if making money trading actual items by influencing markets/politicians isn't profitable enough, kick it up a notch and make money trading
Step 9: If questioned or called out, act as if there is no way the person pointing out truth could possibly understand the complexities of the system and therefore and unqualified to comment. If person is in energy production label them greedy capitalistic ways". If somebody from any other sector of economy comes forward to detail insanity of scam, I mean legislation, label them a racist or proclaim they don't care about
Step 10: Goto Step 1.
Respect the Constitution
Now there's a whole new genre of romance novels begging to be written.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
....not the source code, but the triggering events and the nature of all inputs. I'm more curious to know if the source code is really just one big bloat that only serves to cover GS themselves' gaming of the system.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Anyone got a mirror for that GSachs code? I need some jet fuel and a bunch of dolphin-safe tattoo ink. I need tattooed dolphins for my lagoon, inside my volcano hideaway -- and the stock market hasn't been helping this lair construction very much thanks to the competition and the high priced assassinations required to not lose everything I've worked so hard towards.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
The idea wouldn't be for someone else to use "their" trading system, though. It would about finding its conjugate-the system which would be able to perfectly game against the GS system, manipulate it, abuse it, take $$ from it, then vanish.
The New York Stock Exchange quietly announced last week that it would end its practice of requiring companies to report all their program trading -- a move that helps shield large investment banks, particularly Goldman Sachs, from public scrutiny.
The new rule means the public will no longer be able to tell if large investment banks are manipulating the stock market for their own gain, says Matt Taibbi, the journalist whose Rolling Stone article on Goldman Sachsâ(TM) role in asset bubbles over the past century has rocked the financial world.
According to previous NYSE rules, any company that carried out program trading -- essentially, large computer-automated trades worth more than $1 million -- had to report the trades to the NYSE, which then made the information publicly available.
But, under new regulations (PDF) published last week, that requirement has been removed.
"The NYSE announced that it will no longer be releasing its weekly program trading data," Taibbi wrote in a blog posting. "This is quiet obviously a move designed to make it even more impossible to track whatâ(TM)s going on in the NYSE and shield, in particular, Goldman Sachs."
Taibbi argues that the move is designed to protect investment banks from bloggers who are exposing the companiesâ(TM) stock market manipulations. Goldman Sachs is singled out because the investment bankâ(TM)s share of principal NYSE trading has gone from 27 percent at the end of 2008 to fully 50 percent of trades in recent months.
Blogs such as Zero Hedge have been using NYSE data to argue that Goldman Sachs now has an almost unfettered ability to control stock prices.
Source: Alternet
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
"If you had time to reference it then, you have time to reference it now." That's not motivating to me. It seems impolite.
It's crazy, I think that the events are not common knowledge.
Why do you want to know? What research are you doing?
I just don't have time now. All I remember immediately is that Glass-Steagull was not particularly objectionable. The corruption was accomplished using several rule changes that were kept quite secret.