I’m amused sometimes when I stumble on things like this…

Bill Cara pointed to an interview that Jim Cramer recently did on “professional juicing”, or basically manipulating markets to help your positions… Here it is from You Tube:

Watch the interview, and notice Cramer’s preference for starting rumors to help move markets.

Now take a look at this news story that broke on Friday… a rumor that Barrick might buy Newmont Mining. Note that the rumor started in Business Week — which would be a bit more sophisticated rumor-starting…

Should it surprise anyone that Friday was an option expiration day (a quadruple witching, no less), and that there were rather large open interest positions in the March calls before this rumor broke?

Don’t think that Cramer is the only person on Wall Street who understands the value of a good rumor, and don’t think that people are above playing tricks to manipulate stock prices in the short term…