Quote from TradeVestor:
Very interesting ethical concept: "A trade is a trade, no matter what". So should I conclude if a trade is a result of an illegal action (manipulation or even fraud) - it is still a valid trade ? And in case of a technical malfunction at the exchange or human error leading to erroneous market price information that is triggering false unintended trade executions for hundrerd of traders - these are still valid trades?
In contrast to this my understanding is that a trade is a mutual agreement, where both parties freely and voluntarily agree on the basis of a common understanding of clear unfalsified conditions and true statements. A unrealistic market price far away from fair-value in a thin overnight market is not providing the basics of unfalsified conditions and true statements ! A stop placed in any exchange traded instrument is placed under the implied condition that an execution should occur only when the market is trading at that price under regular fair market conditions and not on any artificial spike - that is what is beeing agreed with the placement of a stop order - and NOT : I want an execution if any screen shows any arbitrary price, no matter what !
If someone âgamesâ the market, as you call it, in a thin overnight market situation, its is not at all a commonly accepted market participation where you get rewarded for taking a risk but rather a legally sanctioned crime officially named market manipulation â not at all a gentlemenâs game. For the same reasons that a bank robber does not duly earn and deserve his haul just because he takes and accepts a risk, these trades are not valid.
And you seriously claim that if I place a stop order its MY fault getting caught in a stop cascade caused by manipulation or trade error ? You can just as well proclaim that if a person gets hit by a car on a pedestrian walkway, its that persons fault and not the driver's, no matter what, since if one wouldn't want to get hit there one shouldn´t walk there.
Finally, are you really suggesting, that if something absurd and unjust happens in a different country on a regular basis without being corrected we shouldn't further seek to prevent it here? This is where I clearly loose any understanding.
Indeed, I have a very different opinion of the characteristics of a free and fair market environment than you.