Did Goldman Sachs Short Itself and Short the Market?

Rumors were circling today. If it did, that's chutzpah at its best (or worst, depending on your perspective). If GS the Vampire Squid is going down, everybody else is going down!

And they did, big time. Major US indices may have bounced back and ended with 1.6% loss at most (S&P500), but individual stocks in the indices went down much, much more, regardless of whether they are financial stocks or not.

Did Goldman Short Itself, Reuters Reports Goldman Was Told In Advance It Faced SEC Action (4/16/2010 Zero Hedge)

"Time for the SEC to take a look at what bets Goldman's prop desk, and material affiliates as well as hedge funds that are close to Goldman's flow traders, were taking on Goldman's stock over the past few days. If indeed Goldman shorted itself, bought SPY puts, bought octuple leveraged negative financial ETFs, or something else of the sort, on material non-public information, it would be time to shut the firm down." [Emphasis is original.]

And:

Talk From The Pits: Goldman Sold 1,000 Large S&Ps Earlier (4/16/2010 Zero Hedge)

"From the open outcry pits:

Goldman sold 1,000 big SP today over 1,200.00. Was it just a hedge because they
KNEW the SEC would do nail them to the cross? Is that insider trading? Who knows
how many tens of thousands they sold in the ES?

"We can hope the SEC still hasn't blocked Zero Hedge and is reading these very pertinent questions. "

For more on what the SEC's action on an Op-Ex cay did to the market, GS share price, and April option prices (someone made an immoral amount of money), take a look at my trading blog.

(And oh BTW, Mercury Retrograde starts on April 17 at Taurus, the bull.)

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