Investors may have had prior knowledge of Hamas attack on Israel – research
A new study detected a sharp uptick in trading activity on Tel Aviv and US stock exchanges before October 7 | Some traders may have been informed about the Hamas plan to attack Israel on October 7 and used that knowledge to make millions of dollars by short-selling Israeli securities, a study by US researchers published on Monday suggests. ● Law professors Robert Jackson Jr. from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University examined trading in exchange-traded funds that invest in Israeli companies, as well as short-selling activity on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and options activity around Israeli firms traded on US exchanges. ● Short-selling is aimed at making a profit on an asset that is expected to drop in price. The seller "borrows" a security and sells it on the open market with the goal of buying it back later at a lower price and pocketing the difference. Researchers found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks that triggered the Israel-Hamas war.