For subscribers
Did Hamas make millions trading the Oct 7 attacks?
Researchers highlight suspicious markets activity.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The timing of the Hamas attack blindsided Israel’s army and intelligence services, and appears to have surprised even some of Hamas’ political leaders.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Economist
In the run-up to its attack on Israel on Oct 7, Hamas maintained tight operational security. The timing of the assault blindsided Israel’s army and intelligence services, and appears to have surprised even some of Hamas’ political leaders. However, a new working paper by Mr Robert Jackson Jr, a former commissioner of America’s Securities and Exchange Commission, and Professor Joshua Mitts of Columbia University suggests that someone had enough advance knowledge of the plan to make a small fortune profiting from a crash in the Israeli stock market.
The authors analysed trading patterns in Israeli shares in the weeks before the attack, and found anomalies consistent with a grim form of informed trading. Perhaps the most striking example is a surge in short sales – bets that a security’s price will fall – of a relatively illiquid exchange-traded fund (ETF) which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker EIS, and tracks an index of Israeli share prices.
