From "Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89", the current book I'm reading:
"One particularly imaginative racket was dreamed up by a group of warrant officers. The air force was abandoning boxes of plastic nose cones - nursiki - for their rockets. You could drink from them but apart from that they were not much good for anything. The racketeers started by going round the shops asking the traders if they had any nursiki for sale. The traders had never heard of nursiki and asked what they were for. "You would not understand" said the racketeers but they are very useful, very scarce and very expensive. After they had launched a few boxes of nose cones on the market, the racketeers bought them back at inflated prices. After a few rounds of placing and buybacks, the cupidity of the traders pushed the price sky-high and when demand seemed to be at it's height, the racketeers sold off two truck-loads of nursiki and disappeared. When the traders realized what has happened, they complained to the Soviet Embassy and were told "if you can't stand the heat, don't go into the kitchen". Years later the traders were still wondering how they could have let themselves be so comprehensively fooled."
God, I love the scheme! Told it to my father who's turning 80 soon and he was not amused. And myself don't condone the sort of stuff these guys did but as a wannabe trader, I can't but admire human ingenuity. Also the answer of the Soviet Embassy, which sort of applies to stock market too
Book on Amazon:
"One particularly imaginative racket was dreamed up by a group of warrant officers. The air force was abandoning boxes of plastic nose cones - nursiki - for their rockets. You could drink from them but apart from that they were not much good for anything. The racketeers started by going round the shops asking the traders if they had any nursiki for sale. The traders had never heard of nursiki and asked what they were for. "You would not understand" said the racketeers but they are very useful, very scarce and very expensive. After they had launched a few boxes of nose cones on the market, the racketeers bought them back at inflated prices. After a few rounds of placing and buybacks, the cupidity of the traders pushed the price sky-high and when demand seemed to be at it's height, the racketeers sold off two truck-loads of nursiki and disappeared. When the traders realized what has happened, they complained to the Soviet Embassy and were told "if you can't stand the heat, don't go into the kitchen". Years later the traders were still wondering how they could have let themselves be so comprehensively fooled."
God, I love the scheme! Told it to my father who's turning 80 soon and he was not amused. And myself don't condone the sort of stuff these guys did but as a wannabe trader, I can't but admire human ingenuity. Also the answer of the Soviet Embassy, which sort of applies to stock market too
Book on Amazon:
