26 Karl Marx’s Stock Market Trades
Karl Marx, best known for his critiques of capitalism, once earned 400 pounds by trading on the London Stock Exchange.
27. In 2000, 15-year-old Jonathan Lebed, a New Jersey teen, manipulated stock prices by using multiple fictitious accounts to post on internet message boards. His strategy earned him up to $74,000 per day. The government pursued legal action, but ultimately allowed him to keep half a million dollars of his earnings.
28. After hitting a low point in 2009, Domino’s Pizza saw its stock surge by 233% within a year, all thanks to a bold decision to improve its pizza recipe.
29. In 2009, Steven Perkins, an investment broker at London-based PVM Oil Futures, in his drunken stupor, caused oil prices to spike to an eight-month high. Over 30 minutes, he spent $520 million of his employer’s money to trade 7 million barrels of oil-only to wake up with no memory of the incident. His firm ultimately suffered $10 million in losses.
30. The Dutch East India Company became the world’s first publicly traded company when it went public on a stock exchange. The massive capital raised allowed it to expand into a multinational conglomerate with over 70,000 employees. At its peak, it was worth 78 million Dutch guilders, the equivalent of $7.4 trillion today.
31 Air Conditioning Reduces Market Volatility
The introduction of air conditioning on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor in 1902 led to a measurable decrease in stock market volatility.
32. In 1987, hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones believed the stock market was overvalued and took an extremely risky short position. On October 19, 1987-now known as Black Monday-the market crashed hard. Jones walked away with a $100 million profit, while many investors lost everything. His trade became legendary on Wall Street.
33. The “Ting Hai Effect” is a stock market phenomenon in which the market experiences a sudden and unexplained drop whenever a film or television series starring Hong Kong actor Adam Cheng is released.
34. Lou Pai, a senior executive at Enron, cashed out more than $250 million worth of company stock in 2001 to settle his divorce after having an affair with a stripper. Shortly after, Enron’s stock collapsed, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection.
35. In 2002, Sega’s president donated his entire $695 million stake in the company to prevent it from going bankrupt due to the Dreamcast’s financial struggles. Shortly afterward, he passed away following a long battle with cancer.
36 Old GM Stock Becomes Worthless
In 2009, General Motors declared bankruptcy, took billions in government bailout money, and issued new stock for the “New GM.” However, shareholders of the now-worthless “Old GM” stock received no compensation.
37. The Norwegian Oil Fund (Norges Bank Investment Management) invests all state profits from oil and owns 1.5% of all publicly traded stocks worldwide. Its investments total $1.891 trillion USD as of February 2025.
38. In 2004, an activist from The Yes Men falsely claimed to represent Dow Chemical in a BBC interview, announcing a $12 billion settlement for victims of the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster, which killed 3,000 people. As a result, Dow’s stock plummeted, causing a $2 billion loss before the hoax was exposed.
39. The stock market crash was not the sole cause of the Great Depression. Instead, widespread panic led people to withdraw their money from banks, default on loans, and collapse the banking system. This, in turn, caused job losses and widespread financial ruin.
40. In the 1980s, two billionaire oil magnates attempted to corner the global silver market by buying up an estimated one-third of the world’s supply. Their scheme drove silver prices to unprecedented levels, forcing regulators to implement new stock market rules to stop them.
41 Isaac Newton’s South Sea Loss
In 1720, stock speculation drove the South Sea Company’s share price from £128 in January to £1,000 in August. When the bubble burst, investors faced financial ruin. One of them, Sir Isaac Newton, lost £20,000-equivalent to approximately £268 million today.
42. At the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, Volkswagen briefly became the most valuable company in the world for a single day, despite being on the verge of bankruptcy.
43. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, gambling on U.S. elections was widespread. In New York, the money wagered on elections often exceeded the total trading volume of stocks and bonds. Since modern polling did not exist, newspapers used betting odds to predict race outcomes.
44. The Bazacle Milling Company, founded in Toulouse, France, operated as a joint-stock company of watermills. Starting in the 14th century, its shares were freely traded, and dividends were paid in flour until 1840. The company was nationalized in 1946.
45. The Bombay Stock Exchange, the oldest stock market in Asia, began in the 1850s when five stockbrokers gathered under a banyan tree in front of Mumbai’s Town Hall to trade securities.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 1792 NYSE Founding Agreement
The New York Stock Exchange was established in 1792 when 24 brokers and lenders signed an agreement to trade securities exclusively among themselves, set trading fees, and avoid auctions outside of their group.
47. The London Stock Exchange originated in the 17th century inside a coffee house in Change Alley, where traders gathered to buy and sell stocks.
48. When Stephen Hawking lectured in Japan once, organizers asked him to avoid mentioning the possible re-collapse of the universe, fearing that such a statement could negatively impact the stock market.
49. The New York Stock Exchange transitioned from floor trading-where brokers shouted and used hand signals-to an electronic system in 2007, 21 years after London had already made the switch.
50. President Grover Cleveland secretly underwent surgery to remove a tumor in his mouth aboard a yacht. He feared that news of his cancer diagnosis would cause turmoil in the stock market.
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.
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.