"So $4.1 billion ?sounds? like a lot of money, and it would be if that was your bar tab at a Las Vegas pool party, but this was the S&P futures market and more importantly? a NOTIONAL VALUE."
A bit more perspective... with leverage, the margin you need to trade 75,000 lots is just $37.5 mil... how many hedge funds do you reckon have that much money to play with - just about all of them.
"But truth be told, it was only a 75,000-lot order in a sea of 6 MILLION [traded that day]"
"Last Friday [October 1st... just a very normal day] all 75,000 sell orders shown between the arrows were slamming the bid. All of these orders were filled in just 15-minutes. Over the next 8-minutes or so, an additional 40,000 sell orders slammed the bid. Neither the 75,000 sell orders, nor the additional 40,000 sell orders caused a GLOBAL equity sell-off. There was no sell-off at all.
This kind of trading happens all the time and is perfectly normal. You really have to wonder why the SEC would single out one firm about this.
