A bit earlier today someone got their hands on the official AP Twitter account and falsely reported that Barack Obama had been injured by an explosion in the White House. As you can see above, the financial market reaction was swift and decisive. A huge crash followed by a large rally once it became clear this was fake.
It makes you wonder if there isn’t a profit-making opportunity out there in the realm of Twitter hacks. The Internet seems to spread both the rumor and the correction very quickly, and U.S. financial markets are deep and liquid enough to respond in a big way in real time. As Oliver Willis writes, instead of his elaborate stock market hijacking plan Bane could have just sent out some errant tweets.
