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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
RE: Fact #1 (2010 Flash Crash Manipulation) –
RE: Fact #12 (Insider Trading in 2 Milliseconds) –
Oops, forgot about the speed of light! Busted.
RE: Fact #16 (1836 Telegraph Hacking for Stocks) – I just learned that they had an optical telegraph way back in 1836!
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%.
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?
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.
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.
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.