If I have the right SPX, their business units are:

1. Flow Technology: water pumps and air filtration systems
2. Testing and Measurements: tools involved mostly in the manufacturing process for electronic testing, detection, and measurement.
3. Thermal Equipment: Industrial and home HVAC
4. Industrial Products: transformers, hydraulics, antennae, machinned parts for aircraft

And no Carlyle Group involvement.

I want more info - are their any smart people out there who can help dimbulb THB?

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

From the same thread:

Bye [sic] the way, deep out-of-the-money index options trade all the time on the CBOE. It is a way to collar or hedge positions that fund managers may take simultaneously. News of any single call or put contract may say nothing about the consolidated net gain or loss the counterparty will incur on a particular date.

Well prior to 9/11, airlines were subject to speculative options, precisely because their bottom lines are so volatile and the recurring visits to Chapter 11 courts. This had nothing to do with any alleged “inside knowlege” about the attacks on the WTC or the Pentagon. The SEC did investigate allegations and found no outsized profits by people with any tip off or connection. Even if one does not trust the SEC, the vast dissemination of trading data would enable any one with a PC to do their own forensic investigation, and no report, article, or reputable financial website or blog has ever published anything to prove insider knowledge or collusion on 9/11.

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

the whole stock market’s an elaborate scam to separate the mark from his poke. It’s been way too long since a trader went out his window.

On the matter of 9/11, the Govt was complicit with the airlines in one fatal particular: flight-deck doors.

Airline safety guys had said for 30 years that the airlines had to have lockable doors to the flight-deck, to prevent such incidents as the subsequently occurred on ix/xi.
airlines and govt regulators conspired for nearly 30 years to prevent them being installed.

… because it’s designed to drive away with your money.”

Excellent point on the flight deck doors.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

It could be simply a rumor.

It could be simply a dodge to raise cash for another purpose. Mundane hedge fund privateering. Run of the mill run-on-the-bank robbery.

That’s the damned thing about emergent conspiracies. It doesn’t have to be Carlyle that does the options. It might make more sense in fact if it wasn’t or if it was only a front.

I still remember Rumsfeld announcing on September 10th the D.o’D. couldn’t account for $2 trillion. And after 9/11, floating the idea of “terorism futures” as an investment vehicle. Is this related? Does it make sense? Is it correct?

Sometimes, to paraphrase digby, trying to make sense out of what I’m seeing and hearing is like trying to read druid runes. Certainly trying to figure out what the next move is going to be is like trying set up and solve a differential equation from data written in invisible ink. So if I’m wrong, apologies.

If I’m paranoid, well, I think I’ve got good reason to be so,

No Hell below us
Above us, only sky