On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who — made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — "like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets," according to one financial analyst.Another informative article by Matt Taibbi.
But what's even crazier is that the bet paid.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Wall Street's Naked Swindle : A scheme to flood the market with counterfeit stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers
Rolling Stone reports: