Intra-Day Update: Cui Bono?

UPDATE 2:48pm EDT: So, the market is in a tumble obviously and everyone is assuming the impending doom. Now, bearish as you all know I am, I cannot help but suspect a ruse, or let’s call it a bear trap. Are we making new lows? Well, not yet at least. I also don’t see any indication that the Feds are stepping in to stem the drop, which would be relatively easy considering today’s low volume. So, maybe I’m going on a limb here but I have doubts that this one is for real. Why?

Cui bono? (in the spirit of Tim’s latin lessons) – literally “as a benefit to whom?” Or in English – who benefits? Tomorrow we’ll have a big vote in the House – would a stable market or even a rallying market benefit the PPT’s cause? Or would it make more sense to let the market fall, or even worse, engange in robotic selling, which seems what it is happening today. Your guess is as good as mine, but I wanted to throw it out there.

UPDATE 3:10pm EDT: Just saw this on the slope – it seems at least BofA is preparing for a nationwide one week shutdown. Is this for real? Does this only affect BofA? Should we all go and grab our cash from our other banks? Input/Insights appreciated. FYI: my wife is already on her way to grab all her cash out of her BofA account.

UPDATE 4:19pm EDT: Here’s a short term chart of the NASDAQ futures (NQ) – does this look ‘real’ or does it look like a systematic sell off to you? And where’s the panic selling in the last few minutes? I actually see a spike up!

Real or Faux?

MarketWatch claims that the market dropped on economic slowdown fears – yeah right! After months of bad news and a House vote the next day that is expected to ease the credit crunch investors are dropping everything today? I know the average lemming out there is pretty vacuous but this just smells like a huge bear trap to me. Perhaps I’m wrong – and even if – wouldn’t matter. Nobody can afford puts at a VIX hanging at 45 anyway. Maybe I’m going to regret it tomorrow when we drop like 600 points again, but I just don’t trust this and the risk/reward ratio does not add up.