The stock market is often seen as a world of numbers, charts, and cold calculations—but behind the tickers and trades lie some of the strangest and most unexpected stories in financial history. From chimpanzee investors and teenage market manipulators to billion-dollar blunders and historic crashes, these tales reveal the wild, unpredictable, and sometimes downright bizarre side of Wall Street and beyond. Here are 50 of the most unusual stock market stories that prove truth is often stranger than fiction.
1 2010 Flash Crash Manipulation
The 2010 Flash Crash temporarily wiped out $1 trillion from the US stock market. Investigators later discovered that Navinder Sarao, an autistic man living in his parents’ London home, contributed to the crash. Over five years, Sarao used custom software to manipulate high-frequency traders, earning a $40 million profit.
2. In 2018, Samsung experienced a historic “fat-finger” error when it accidentally distributed $9 million worth of company shares to each of its employees. The total amount mistakenly allocated exceeded $100 billion-over 30 times Samsung’s market capitalization. Within 37 minutes, 16 employees sold their shares, causing the stock to plummet by 11%.
3. In 2005, graffiti artist David Choe received an offer of $60,000 to paint murals at Facebook headquarters. Instead of cash, he opted for company stock. That decision eventually turned his compensation into a fortune worth more than $200 million.
4. A chimpanzee named Raven appeared in the 2009 Guinness World Records book as the most successful chimpanzee investor on Wall Street. She chose stocks by tossing darts at a list of 133 internet companies, which led her to become the 22nd most successful money manager in the United States.
5. At Microsoft, employees coined the term “FYIFV,” which stands for “Fu*k You, I’m Fully Vested.” It refers to a person who has earned so much from Microsoft stock that they feel free to speak their mind and leave the company whenever they choose.
6 MicroStrategy Triggers Dot-Com Crash
In March 2000, MicroStrategy announced that it had significantly overstated its revenue. This revelation triggered a 62% stock drop in a single day, which started the cascade in what is now regarded as the bursting of the dot-com bubble.
7. In 2013, five years after going out of business, the electronics retailer Tweeter experienced its most active stock trading day ever. Traders mistakenly believed its stock symbol belonged to Twitter, causing shares of the defunct company to skyrocket by 1,000%.
8. In 2001, UBS mistakenly sold 610,000 Dentsu shares at ¥6 each instead of selling six Dentsu shares at ¥610,000 each. Despite spotting the error immediately, the Tokyo Stock Exchange refused to cancel the trades. As a result, UBS had to repurchase the shares at market value, leading to a $100 million loss.
9. The Onion Futures Act, a US law, bans futures contracts on onions. In 1955, two traders cornered the market by acquiring 98% of Chicago’s onion supply and futures contracts. They then threatened to flood the market unless growers bought back their own stock, prompting the government to intervene.
10. At the height of the dot-com bubble, Cisco briefly held the title of the world’s most valuable company in 2000. However, its stock price later collapsed by 88% within two years and never returned to its record highs.
11 Buffett’s Hedge Fund Bet
In 2007, Warren Buffett bet a hedge fund manager that the S&P 500 would outperform a portfolio of hedge funds over 10 years. By the end of the decade, the S&P 500 had returned 85%, while the hedge funds managed only 22%.
12. After a Federal Reserve interest rate decision in 2013, traders executed transactions on the Chicago stock market within just 2 milliseconds of the announcement. Investigators later determined this was insider trading, as it would have taken at least 7 milliseconds for the information to reach Chicago at the speed of light.
13. Traders once used to speculate on government interest rate hikes based on the thickness of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s briefcase as he entered Federal Reserve meetings. A thicker briefcase supposedly indicated more documents and a higher likelihood of policy changes.
14. In 1951, Thelma Howard began working as a maid for Walt and Lillian Disney. Every Christmas for the next 30 years, Walt gifted her Disney stock. When she passed away in 1994, her estate revealed that she had retained all 192,000 shares-then valued at $9 million. Her fortune went to disadvantaged children and her disabled son.
15. Walter Schramm, an investor, bought Amazon stock in the 1990s and pledged not to check his account for 20 years. When he finally logged in, he discovered that $100,000 worth of stock had disappeared. The state government had seized it as unclaimed property because his account had been deemed inactive.
16 1836 Telegraph Hacking for Stocks
Two brothers hacked the French optical telegraph system by inserting a man-in-the-middle to intercept stock market information. For two years, they exploited the system to gain advance knowledge of market movements. When authorities caught them in 1836, they walked free since no laws against hacking existed at the time.
17. Somali pirates established an exchange where investors could buy shares in pirate groups to fund their operations. In 2009, one 22-year-old investor made $75,000 in just 38 days after receiving a share of ransom money.
18. Jesse Livermore, a stock trader, accurately predicted the 1929 market crash and profited immensely from his foresight. However, his wealth made him a target of public resentment. Struggling with personal and financial issues, he died by suicide in 1940.
19. When researchers taught capuchin monkeys to gamble, the animals displayed the same irrational decision-making tendencies as human gamblers. Statistical analysis revealed that their behavior closely resembled that of typical stock market investors.
20. Delaware’s corporate-friendly laws have made it the preferred home for businesses. As a result, 66% of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of all publicly traded corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange are incorporated there.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Buffett’s Revenge Berkshire Buyout
Warren Buffett purchased controlling shares of Berkshire Hathaway, now a multibillion-dollar company, purely to fire the CEO as revenge for trying to lowball him when he attempted to sell his stock. Buffett later admitted it was the dumbest stock purchase he ever made.
22. The Nike logo originally cost just $35 to design. However, the company gifted the designer stock instead of paying cash, which she never sold. Today, that stock is worth millions.
23. The New York Stock Exchange is owned by a company called Intercontinental Exchange, which, ironically, has its stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
24. In 1997, Apple stock hit a 12-year low, partially due to a single sale of 1.5 million shares (worth $22.5 million) by an anonymous investor. This decline helped Steve Jobs convince the board to fire CEO Gil Amelio and appoint him as the replacement. Later, it came to light that Jobs had personally made the anonymous sale.
25. Wall Street’s famous Charging Bull, a popular New York City tourist attraction, cost $360,000 to build. Artists illegally placed it in the middle of the night in 1989, following a stock market crash. Authorities impounded the statue, but overwhelming public outcry led to its return.
RE: Fact #24 (Steve Jobs’ Anonymous Apple Selloff) – Everyone’s saying Steve Jobs was a jerk. Sent from my iPhone
RE: Fact #3 (David Choe’s Facebook Fortune) – He was on the Howard Stern show, telling how he was getting a blowj*b in Vegas when he found out his stock had skyrocketed, making him $200 million richer.
Was he watching the news?
So, he claims he woke up to reporters outside, no idea why, and then his ex texts him, offering a million bucks for daily…favors…for life. When he asked why, she sent him the article about how much he’s now worth.
I’m saying Dave *really* loves to lie.
Like, last time he was on Joe Rogan, he spun this yarn about dyeing his hair blonde, going to the Congo looking like a blonde Asian, and how these tribespeople reacted. Then Joe asked Jaime to show the picture—it was just regular, dark-haired Dave. Why even lie about that? Gotta love the game, I guess.
RE: Fact #6 (MicroStrategy Triggers Dot-Com Crash) – So, one of the MicroStrategy guys, right? He basically retired to become a super-traveler, like, seriously obsessed. He even took a tramp steamer to some crazy remote island! But, uh oh, most of his cash was in MicroStrategy stock, and when things crashed, he had to go back to work.
Being an evil billionaire isn’t the worst thing, I suppose.
RE: Fact #27 (Teen’s $74K/Day Stock Scam) – Teenage boys are a handful, that’s for sure. They’re still pretty straightforward in their dishonesty; it takes time to master the art of fake respect for people who aren’t worth it.
That article was great. It was written by the same Michael Lewis who wrote *Moneyball*, *Liar’s Poker*, *The Big Short*, and so on.
RE: Fact #39 (Great Depression’s Banking Collapse) – A big problem was banks loaning people money to buy more stocks. They got way too carried away, lending on stuff that was hard to sell fast. When the market tanked, the banks wanted their money back, but couldn’t sell the stuff they were holding as collateral. So, they went bust, just like their customers.
Now, the SEC has tough rules on what can be used as collateral for these loans.
RE: Fact #8 (UBS’s $100M Stock Order Mistake) – If a junior employee’s doing this ’cause their boss is on vacation and no one higher up is checking in, that’s the company’s fault, not the employee’s.
RE: Fact #19 (Gambling Monkeys and Stock Trading) – So, these monkeys learned about money, and guess what? They started using it for sex. One male monkey even paid a female monkey for it, all on his own. And get this—they totally get fairness. If you try to cheat them, they’ll be furious!
They really care about being fair. If two monkeys do the same job but one gets a worse prize, they both get upset. Sometimes the lucky monkey shares, sometimes they both refuse to work until the other gets a fair deal, and sometimes they just lose it completely! Toddlers do almost the same thing.
Bonobos, our closest relatives, have their own brothels – they trade sex for food, toys, and all sorts of things, without any human help. It’s also wild that they don’t just trade sex between males and females; it’s females with females, males with males, all over the place. Some seem picky, others don’t. We’re not as unique as we think.
That monkey was furious—he got way less snacks than the others, and looked ready to bomb a city!
RE: Fact #12 (Insider Trading in 2 Milliseconds) – No way, Virtu Financial thinks they can beat physics? Seriously?
RE: Fact #2 (Samsung’s $100B Fat-Finger Error) – So, for anyone wondering about the court stuff, Twitter says they got canned but still kept most of their cash and are now banned. That’s all I could dig up. My take? 16 sold *all* their stock. 21 tried to sell some or all before anyone noticed – that was just 37 minutes before trading stopped, and all 21 were hauled into court. Ouch. And poor guy who noticed at minute 36 – missed the boat and *still* got in trouble! Six people got nothing at all. Brutal.
So, “blacklisted”—does that mean they can’t trade stocks anymore? Or is there something else going on I’m missing?
Because if that’s all it is, then, like, whatever. I’m loaded. It doesn’t bother me.
RE: Fact #21 (Buffett’s Revenge Berkshire Buyout) –
Wouldn’t it be amazing to have so much money you could essentially destroy an industrial giant just by buying up its stock?
I’d prefer a Gundam, but hey, different people like different things.
A billionaire and a street dealer? Their life stories aren’t that different, believe it or not. They both got ripped off for a small amount of something valuable.
They were both jerks, but the rich jerk won. So, what’s the plan? Worship the ground he walks on, I guess!
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have so much money you could seriously mess with huge corporations?
He wasn’t wealthy then, just clever and reliable. People trusted him with seven million dollars, and that’s how he got rich.
RE: Fact #1 (2010 Flash Crash Manipulation) –
RE: Fact #12 (Insider Trading in 2 Milliseconds) –
Oops, forgot about the speed of light! Busted.
Lots of insider traders probably waited just 10 milliseconds and got away with it, right? It’s easy to picture this happening all the time: big players with the inside scoop trading against everyday folks who think they’re big shots with their $100-200k. Makes you wonder where your retirement money’s actually going, huh?
RE: Fact #16 (1836 Telegraph Hacking for Stocks) – I just learned that they had an optical telegraph way back in 1836!
The Count of Monte Cristo mentions an old-fashioned telegraph system. Someone bribed a guy working the system to mess with the stock market.
Read that book—it’s amazing!
RE: Fact #23 (NYSE Owned by Its Own Stock) – It came about because New York was trying to make its own.
RE: Fact #15 (Government Seizes Amazon Investor’s Stock) – My job is handling lost money for my company. Companies have to give unclaimed cash to the state, but the state doesn’t get to keep it – you can claim it back! Plus, companies have to send out notices by mail before handing over the money.
RE: Fact #22 (Nike Logo Designer’s Stock Millions) – Nike stock: 32,000 shares at $121.55 each came to $3,889,600.
If she’d sold at the November 2021 high of $173.12, she would’ve made $5,539,840.
Back in 1981, 500 shares at 7 cents apiece would have been worth around $35.
Those shares were worth about $72.50 each in ’83 when she got them.
RE: Fact #17 (Somali Pirates’ Stock Exchange) – Wow some of those quotes:
I’d pay to see those divorce papers – who even handles that stuff anyway? “Look, if you’re keeping the RPG, he gets to keep the AKs. We already talked about this; we’ll split the knives after the guns!”
RE: Fact #11 (Buffett’s Hedge Fund Bet) – Surprise! Those hedge funds are still investing in the S&P 500, but they’re keeping the extra profits for themselves and saying they only made 22%.
Yeah, that’s how it works. The problem isn’t that the funds are making bad investments – finding good and bad ones is equally hard, it’s the same job – it’s that the managers are lining their own pockets.
RE: Fact #8 (UBS’s $100M Stock Order Mistake) – Back in 2015, a Deutsche Bank newbie messed up a trade. Their boss was on holiday, and they got gross and net all mixed up. Whoops! That sent a US hedge fund $6 billion – way, way more than it should have been.
Wouldn’t you just love to *be* that junior employee before the boss found out while on vacation?
Edit: On second thought, I wouldn’t want to be the one explaining the difference between net and gross to my boss…especially since he already knows I don’t get it.
RE: Fact #50 (Cleveland’s Secret Cancer Surgery) – I’m curious how the stock market would’ve done if he’d died from that surgery he had on a boat—you know, the one where he slipped because of the waves?
Yachts can be huge, and lots of ships are basically floating hospitals. Even non-medical ships, like aircraft carriers, often have doctors and clinics onboard since their crews are at sea for so long. Plenty of war casualties were treated on hospital ships in the past, and it still happens today.
RE: Fact #28 (Domino’s Pizza Stock Surge) – Is a pizzeria’s success *really* all about the pizza recipe? That’s wild.
The marketing probably did more for that pizza than the pizza itself did.
RE: Fact #24 (Steve Jobs’ Anonymous Apple Selloff) – It’s like how Palpatine became Emperor.
Life’s mirroring art.
RE: Fact #30 (Dutch East India Company IPO) – The company ran its own courts and even had the power to execute workers who broke the rules. Think about your workplace having *that* kind of authority.
Back in the day, the Dutch and British East India Companies were the biggest, baddest corporations ever – they even had royal navies doing their dirty work! Crazy to think corporate power’s been going downhill ever since.
RE: Fact #40 (Billionaires’ Failed Silver Market Takeover) – So, they got nailed for fraud, went bankrupt, got a huge bailout, and ended up super rich before they kicked the bucket.
So, why did the US Treasury give them a handout? The article’s mum on that.
Earlier, with that Bache thing, US banks bailed them out, even though they hadn’t fessed up about their 6.5% stake in Bache. Pretty cheeky, huh?
The Hunt brothers bet big on silver futures through several brokers, including Bache Halsey Stuart Shields (later Prudential-Bache and Prudential Securities). When silver prices tanked, they got hit with a $100 million margin call. They couldn’t pay, and with a potential $1.7 billion loss looming, panic spread through the markets. Officials worried that if the Hunts went under, some big Wall Street firms and banks would go down with them.
To avoid a disaster, US banks gave the brothers a $1.1 billion lifeline to pay Bache, saving them from collapse. The SEC then looked into things, as the Hunts hadn’t revealed their 6.5% Bache stake.
RE: Fact #22 (Nike Logo Designer’s Stock Millions) – Imagine getting rich just from drawing a curvy checkmark.
RE: Fact #50 (Cleveland’s Secret Cancer Surgery) – I just learned that Grover Cleveland had a look-alike named Glover Cleveland.
RE: Fact #8 (UBS’s $100M Stock Order Mistake) – I accidentally ordered 1500 hammers instead of one! Luckily, we got a refund, but not before the warehouse called to ask about the massive hammer delivery. My math skills aren’t great, but I sure do love hammers.
RE: Fact #36 (Old GM Stock Becomes Worthless) – Bankruptcy’s like this: creditors get paid first, and shareholders might get a little something, but usually they lose everything.
RE: Fact #30 (Dutch East India Company IPO) – The VOC, that’s the Dutch East India Company, was seriously messed up. They committed tons of massacres against native people, used slaves, and even killed their own people for being gay. Pure evil.
RE: Fact #10 (Cisco’s Dot-Com Bubble Collapse) – Cisco used to completely dominate networking hardware. They’re doing alright now, but they let others catch up because their prices were too high and they weren’t innovating enough.
RE: Fact #15 (Government Seizes Amazon Investor’s Stock) – So, the state kept Walter’s account info, and he could’ve asked for it back. Usually, they sell off these accounts and use the money. If he’d asked sooner, he would’ve gotten what his Amazon stock was worth at the time – about $8,000. He didn’t get any extra for the time it was held.
RE: Fact #48 (Hawking’s Universe Warning Censored) – A really worried guy runs up to the speaker after his talk about space. “How long ’til the sun eats the Earth?” he asks. The scientist says, “Five billion years.” The guy breathes a sigh of relief. “Phew! I thought you said five million!”
RE: Fact #35 (Sega President’s $695M Donation) – Dreamcast. So underrated.
RE: Fact #23 (NYSE Owned by Its Own Stock) – It’s as if God made the world and still hangs around.
RE: Fact #12 (Insider Trading in 2 Milliseconds) – The FactRepublic finance pros are all over this.
RE: Fact #26 (Karl Marx’s Stock Market Trades) – Back in 1864, £400 would be like having £65,000 now.
RE: Fact #23 (NYSE Owned by Its Own Stock) – Intercontinental is way more intense than John Wick.
RE: Fact #20 (Delaware’s Corporate Tax Haven) – Delaware corporate law is really detailed and predictable, more so than just “friendly.” Businesses that set up shop there want judges and legal precedents that give them clear results, not ones that favor either side.
It boils down to this: judges’ experience and past rulings.
RE: Fact #10 (Cisco’s Dot-Com Bubble Collapse) – Cisco’s still doing great, making tons of money – their sales almost tripled from 2000 to 2022, going from $19 billion to $52 billion. The catch? The price was way too high; a crazy 234 times earnings. If you’d bought at the top, you’d be waiting 20 years to get your money back.
RE: Fact #6 (MicroStrategy Triggers Dot-Com Crash) – Some folks out there say that Michael Saylor, who settled with the SEC for fraud, now runs a totally legit company with a money printing machine: endless dilution to buy Bitcoin.
Anyone who believes in MSTR is asking for it.
RE: Fact #34 (Enron Executive’s Stripper Divorce Stock) – So, the main point is, it’s usually a good idea to get together with a stripper.
RE: Fact #13 (Greenspan’s Briefcase Market Theory) – The size of your briefcase actually makes a difference. Go figure – Wall Street’s way of predicting the future depends on fancy briefcases!
RE: Fact #32 (Black Monday’s $100M Short Bet) – What’d he short? He doesn’t even say.
He probably tanked the whole market by shorting the Dow, I reckon. Could be off base, though.
RE: Fact #34 (Enron Executive’s Stripper Divorce Stock) – People always mess this up when they share it.
Lou Pai didn’t have much cash, so the judge made him sell his stocks to pay for his divorce.
Since the share sale was court-ordered—not because he was using inside information—he wasn’t guilty of insider trading like the others.
RE: Fact #38 (Fake Dow Chemical Settlement Hoax) – Nope, the Dow didn’t lose any money. That video’s wrong; it actually lost 3% of its value — meaning shareholders lost 3% of their investment.
RE: Fact #18 (Jesse Livermore’s Market Crash Fortune) – Livermore was down six million bucks on his short positions, then the ’29 crash hit and boom – he’s up a hundred million! That’s 1929 money, folks! He even shorted the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake! Burry’s got nothing on him.
He even bet against the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake! How’d he pull that off?
RE: Fact #5 (Microsoft’s ‘Fully Vested’ Culture) – I remember reading in a book, I think it was *Microserfs*, about five coworkers sharing a house back in the mid-90s.
RE: Fact #1 (2010 Flash Crash Manipulation) – He’s totally innocent. What a guy!
RE: Fact #25 (Wall Street’s Charging Bull Origins) – Does the artist who made the Fearless Girl statue get the bull’s symbolism? Or the funny part about a girl stopping a bull market, when the whole point is to help women in the workforce?
RE: Fact #31 (Air Conditioning Reduces Market Volatility) – Tiny temperature changes in cities can mess with people’s heads. Think shady spots with grass and trees compared to areas with lots of weeds, less shade, and tons of concrete. Where people live also matters – money, jobs, healthcare, and education all play a role, but temperature itself affects mental health. Basically, those super-hot city areas aren’t good for people.
A study tracked temperatures over three years using satellite images. They found really hot and really cold spots in the city, and then checked in on 800 people’s health. Turns out, the river and green spaces kept things cooler and people healthier. Folks in hotter areas were way more stressed, anxious, and depressed. So, not everyone in the city has it the same, and city planners need to look out for those in the hotter spots.
RE: Fact #17 (Somali Pirates’ Stock Exchange) – Wow, that’s seriously impressive piracy.
RE: Fact #49 (NYSE’s Switch to Electronic Trading) – London went electronic a year before the ’87 crash. New York did the same a year before the ’08 crash.
RE: Fact #43 (Election Betting Before Polling) – A website’s been following this for a while. The point is, actually having something at stake makes people bet on who they *think* will win, not just who they *want* to win. People often act differently than they think they will.
RE: Fact #34 (Enron Executive’s Stripper Divorce Stock) – He got lucky meeting that stripper.
RE: Fact #6 (MicroStrategy Triggers Dot-Com Crash) – MicroStrategy’s still around. They had a smart system for using data to understand sales and customers, and it was profitable—just not as profitable as they first claimed.
RE: Fact #20 (Delaware’s Corporate Tax Haven) – Delaware’s got more companies than people! Think over two million businesses, but only a little over a million people actually live there.
RE: Fact #7 (Tweeter Stock Mistaken for Twitter) – That person’s been on an emotional rollercoaster. Wow.
RE: Fact #8 (UBS’s $100M Stock Order Mistake) – I was chatting with a buddy who works at a big NYC firm about our jobs. I told him how my boss flipped out over ten bucks missing from the till, and he said he’d once put a decimal point in the wrong place and lost half a million dollars—nobody even noticed!