Trump Media to sell instant access to 'market-moving' social posts

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79gw4lj89eo

by NikxDa • 6 days ago

180 99 6 days ago

syoleene• 6 days ago

If you pay to have the info a few seconds before everyone else, does this make it insider trading?

close04• 6 days ago

You don’t have the info “before everyone else”. You have it after the ones who are guaranteed to benefit from knowing it and/or from disseminating it. Whether you can benefit from it or are the mark is debatable.

short_sells_poo• 6 days ago

The issue is the conflict of interest in POTUS' office. A news agency giving high speed access to news ostensibly just reports news, doesn't make them. The office of the POTUS literally makes the news, even more so today than in the past.

The markets are very headline driven these days because Trump is a prolific poster and is highly unpredictable. This is basically him selling preferential access to market moves that he himself generates.

It's truly an unprecedented level of grifting happening.

healthworker• 6 days ago

This creates an incentive to post things that cause high volatility (even in the downward direction) as that creates a "subscribe if you want early warning of market dips" pressure factor.

mcdeltat• 6 days ago

Maybe we can keep going to a point where it's so ridiculous that people realise the financial markets are the useless money laundering loop that they actually are

pjc504• 6 days ago

The supply of capital is absolutely critical to an industrial economy, even if there's a lot of corruption along the way.

marysol52• 6 days ago

It's bonkers that we have a private company that does things for other private companies being somehow the back-bone of every nation on the planet.....

cosmicgadget5• 5 days ago

This is already happening, see all of the tariff and Iran tweets. It's just that now there's another layer of insiders.

thrance• 6 days ago

Insider trading as a service. They're not even pretending not to do it, utterly shameless.

zb3• 6 days ago

New low..

InsideOutSanta• 6 days ago

Elon Musk must be rolling in his shallow grave, out of which he climbs at night, for not thinking of this before Trump.

abrookewood• 6 days ago

Seriously, there are no limits to his graft. This is commercialisation of insider trading. He is shameless.

jaakkoc• 6 days ago

Crazy times we live in that a president can do this.

titzer• 5 days ago

There was a long concerted effort to disable all the accountability mechanisms. A massive failure across the board, at every level, in every party.

Now that the entire justice system is broken, the American system is being dismantled and looted.

2024 was fatal. Enjoy the slide into the abyss.

cosmicgadget5• 5 days ago

I think we're realizing that the accountability was never there, prior presidents simply had a sense of dignity.

Ultimately only congress and scotus can intervene. But America decided to vote in the January 6 guy and a congress that wouldn't serve as a check on his power.

red-iron-pine6• 5 days ago

that a politician tries to be corrupt isn't new.

the crazy times part is that the gun-totin freedom lovin americans refuse to do jack shit about it.

i believe the term is "chickenhawks"

artisinal• 6 days ago

I still remember when Obama wearing a tan suit was controversial.

spwa44• 6 days ago

I miss Obama. A president that could actually deliver a decent speech and actually bothered to be a politician.

A politician should do TWO things: get elected, and convince the electorate about a path forward, including any compromises needed. Obama is the last president that actually did that. As we all know. Trump just doesn't even bother. And before anyone else points this out: yes, I kind of agree, Biden didn't either. Democrats are their own worst enemy, just like republicans are.

I really miss Obama.

gib444• 6 days ago

Your post reminds me of that scene from the West Wing where the president joins a meeting the VP had already started who had opened with:

"Surely our first priority is to figure out a way to work with Congress"

Then the president joins and is caught up by the note taker and embarrasses the VP with

"Our first priority is to work with congress? Surely our first priority is to serve the American people"

Jordan-1172• 5 days ago

Biden did both, at least at first. Age (and refusal to recognize it) hobbled him in the end, but during his term he was one of the more effective presidents of the last several decades. Arguably more effective than Obama, considering the amount accomplished in one term and the far slimmer majorities he had to work with. And I say that as somebody who loves Obama.

soraminazuki2• 5 days ago

I know the recent presidency really lowered the bar, but Obama wasn't decent. Sure, he was good at speeches. Yet one of the first things he did was let war criminals off the hook. He went soft on fraudsters at Wall Street after they caused a global financial crisis. He prosecuted more whistleblowers than his predecessors combined. He sent drones to foreign soil and extrajudicially assassinated thousands of people outside of war zones, including many civilians. All of this is insane and did play a role for what came after. The world deserves better.

arvid-lind• 6 days ago

The audacity to push things called the Affordable Care Act too.

deepfriedchokes• 5 days ago

“Rules for thee but not for me” is the narcissist’s core value.

kleiba23• 6 days ago

Every country gets the government it deserves.

-- Joseph de Maistre, 1811

kleiba23• 6 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_de_Maistre

red-iron-pine6• 5 days ago

Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre[a] (1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821)[1] was a Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher. He is chiefly remembered as one of the intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism.

Sounds like he'd love Trump, then

scarecrowbob2• 5 days ago

How do some third graders in Alabama deserve this? How do my 22-year-old waiter friends in rural Texas deserve this?

What exactly did they do to deserve this?

tstrimple• 5 days ago

Those third graders didn't vote hard enough.

kleiba23• 4 days ago

Be precise: the quote does not say "individual people deserve...", it's talking about the country as a whole. And even then, you don't necessarily have to agree with it.

podgorniy3• 6 days ago

The epstein-guest-pedo-leader of the "claim-to-be-leader-nation" monetize billion in crypto, poorly chineese manufactured phone and sells access to own market-manipulation-intended-texts. It's so much bad stuff that poor people don't even know how to start battling with it...

The music on this sinking ship will keep playing till the very end. It's a decline. There is no observable way up from this point.

lostlogin2• 6 days ago

There is no observable way up from this point.

The mid terms?

netsharc• 6 days ago

It's already looking like Putin/Erdogan-style election fixing...

easyThrowaway• 6 days ago

And then what? You get a lame duck, then (if you're really lucky) a 4 year dems gov where they basically do basically nothing expect try to clean (or bury) the most outrageous cases of corruption and then once the MAGAs get elected again you're back at the beginning?

Tadpole9181• 5 days ago

Trump fired all members of the Election Assistance Commission this week. His head of the USPS confirmed they have a proposed rule to not deliver mail-in ballots in select states. Last night, as we approach midterms, Trump gave a speech saying US elections are illegitimate and only he can fix it (by controlling the voting machines and who gets to vote).

I'm really sorry, but it really does look like we may have had our last actual election already.

podgorniy3• 5 days ago

two aspects

1. The situation I imply is way broader: it includes corporate favoritism, epstein files people not getting cosequences, cricular investment of the hyperscalers, illusion of AI boom where the president is just a cherry on top. Swap the cherries, and next ones will keep doing what current ones showed is possible and brings no consequences. Add money-printing, war which can't be won, debt growth etc etc. So yes, I don't see good way up from this point. Even with completely midterms lost by trump supporters the major block of problems stays on the table.

2. The mid terms may not result in trump weakening. There are number of scenarios where trump's team/supportes keep major control or even expand it (emergency powers, military or federal interference, or good old intimidation).

cosmicgadget5• 5 days ago

I'm not sure what the way out here is. Even with both houses (which won't happen) the Supreme Court has declared all independent agencies created by Congress unconstitutional. Funding approved by Congress can basically be line-item vetoed by the executive. And of course the bar for impeachment is simply too high.

Split houses means that anything bad can be blamed on the blue house.

Honestly, if you think the GOP isn't currently serving the country's interests you kinda have to hope they aren't given a scapegoat this fall.

feverzsj2• 6 days ago

How could US now be even worse than the spoils system era?

Havoc• 6 days ago

Yet if the average corporate person does insider trading it comes with a prison sentence not pricing.

It’s wild how banana republic level corrupt the US is all of a sudden. Really went from 0 to 100 in months

lostlogin2• 6 days ago

It’s wild how banana republic level corrupt the US is all of a sudden.

It’s wild how utterly predicable this was and yet it was the chosen path.

spwa44• 6 days ago

When you get older, eventually you see the pattern. Political parties, whatever their viewpoints, are tolerated as long as they improve economic outcomes fast enough. When that even just slows down, there is some tolerance, but not much.

cosmicgadget5• 5 days ago

Predictable? It was a campaign promise. People actively decided this is what they wanted.

red-iron-pine6• 5 days ago

ima tell you like Wu told me: cash rules everything around me, dollar dollar bill yall

been that way since Reagan

pjc504• 6 days ago

Does raise the question of whether this also comes with free immunity from prosecution, or whether the NYAG should just pre-emptively say that anyone signing up for this and trading on the results will be prosecuted under NY state law.

(Critical to the whole thing is unfortunately https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecution_of_Donald_Trump_in... , where the judge inexplicably decided to waive sentencing for a felony conviction)

PunchyHamster• 6 days ago

that comes with extra donations

spwa44• 6 days ago

If you want law and policing to work, it needs to be very predictable for everyone. So yes, if there is the least bit of doubt, the NYAG should absolutely say, far in advance, that this will happen.

Because if this isn't the case, then people will be forced to compete by "slightly" violating the law, everyone a little bit more, until the law is a total joke. This has happened in history.

tenthirtyam• 5 days ago

Well, maybe information that is for sale on the open market to anybody that's willing to pay is no longer considered 'insider' information? i.e. trader Jane Doe can't complain that trader John Doe has this info - she could have it too if she wanted.

(edit: not defending this, I find it to be deplorable and disgraces the office of president.)

bestouff• 6 days ago

30 to 100 maybe

hakunin• 5 days ago

The difference between a million and a billion is a billion. It's basically 0 to 100.

feverzsj2• 6 days ago

The system is broken. There is no effective restrict on president's powers. And the president is Trump.

mDyJzDPmBdG2• 6 days ago

I mean Congress or SCOTUS could restrict his powers but they don't want to. How do you even go about fixing that? And is it really that uncommon when president, congress and supreme court is controlled by same party? I have a feeling the only new element is that the same can be now said for media.

whazor• 6 days ago

real danger of insider trading is that you can get jailed 20 years in the future for something you did today

bradleybuda• 6 days ago

Inshallah

bko• 6 days ago

Not sure what "average corporate person" means, but if you're just a random dude and you trade on your golf buddies tips, no one is going to throw you in jail. Very few people get charged a year, like dozens. I'm sure >99.9% of get away with it. I think it's often political or targeted.

The weirdness here comes from the president owning a social media company. I think they're playing up how markets move on their posts for obvious reasons. But social media companies likely sell priority access. They're called enterprise licensing deals. Same with news media, like Bloomberg, Dow, Reuters.

This isn't "insider trading" its publicly available information. The idea that the "little guy" is somehow screwed over by this is just silly.

https://www.barrons.com/advisor/articles/insider-trading-fbi...

bathtub365• 5 days ago

The algorithmic trading firms were already doing this via scraping. What I’m curious about is if they’re going to also impose a slight delay between when posts show up in the API vs when they’re posted on the website.

John23832• 5 days ago

The algorithmic trading firms were already doing this via scraping.

That doesn’t matter. That’s fundamentally different than the president selling access to himself.

red-iron-pine6• 5 days ago

thats math bots reading trades and making best guesses.

probably detremental to the market as a whole but not fundamentally illegal -- they're just watching really, really, really closely.

DJT is selling access to stuff that he knows will move the market, and may only be done just to move the market. wholesale graft, and depending on who benefits, possibly treason.

hazard• 5 days ago

if they’re going to also impose a slight delay between when posts show up in the API vs when they’re posted on the website. help

Yes, they say it will be a few milliseconds. This service is squarely targeted at algo trading firms.

halJordan• 5 days ago

Definitely not 0->100

Remember companies go bankrupt. Slowly then all of the sudden.

We're in a problem that was made by the Bushs, Clintons, Obama & Biden. And Trump. Those who went before them. And of course the voters who put them in power.

Jordan-1172• 5 days ago

It's kind of what happens when an electorate empowers a pathologically lying corrupt criminal to head of state and gives their craven sycophants legislative majorities.

duxup• 5 days ago

Generally the SCOTUS majority seems to feel "It's ok if our president does it." when it it comes to most things.

The few times they disagree they let it stand (like tariffs) and allows the government to collect illegal taxes from the people, and then just shrug at the end with "well guess that was wrong"... and the citizens get nothing back.

red-iron-pine6• 5 days ago

SCOTUS takes money from them -- it is to be expected

Eddy_Viscosity2• 4 days ago

if the average corporate person does insider trading it comes with a prison sentence not pricing

More like it went from 60 to 100. Laws not applying to very wealthy and connected people is definitely not a new development in the USA. But yes, the trend has been accelerating and become very blatant and in-your-face.

0ckpuppet• 9 hours ago

you're about 3 administrations late to the party. The only difference now is that you're paying attention.

OutOfHere• 6 days ago

Previously posted topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48935614

mpweiher• 6 days ago

Insider Trading as a Service.

piker2• 6 days ago

The new commercial data feed, named Truth API, promises to deliver posts to paying institutional clients in "milliseconds".

...

The company, which launched its social media app in 2022, said some firms have been copying its data for months without permission.
McGurn warned that Trump Media will soon block these methods, forcing firms to buy the official feed instead.

This looks like it is monetizing and organizing scrapers. Isn't basically everyone doing this with data feeds these days?

At best this just gives a few milliseconds head start to subscribers and cracks down on automation. I would be shocked if NYSE, etc. don't already have premium tiers with faster market data and those feeds are certainly paid APIs. It's known that HFT shops will co-locate, for example, to have low latency.

This looks really bad, but if it were X and not Truth Social, there wouldn't be anything to see. It goes to the underlying issue of Trump owning and trying to profit from Truth Social generally.

pavlov• 6 days ago

There is literally nothing else of value on Truth Social except the president's posts. And those are considered official government communications. There's a legal ruling about that from the time of the first Trump administration.

So the US president has created a wrapper corporation that sells early access to official government communications. It doesn't matter if it's only milliseconds, that's enough for trading systems to make money.

How can any of this be legal in a democracy?

piker2• 6 days ago

I agree. I think the first part is the surprising part.

The second makes sense for an arms-length news service.

inigyou3• 6 days ago

The people voted for a really corrupt guy, so they get tonnes of corruption. That's how.

xg15• 6 days ago

Waiting for the Polymarket joint venture...

mDyJzDPmBdG2• 6 days ago

It looks like Kalshi is currently closer to the topic at hand: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48936529

freitasm• 6 days ago

The grift. It never stops.

marysol52• 6 days ago

Wake up America, they're laughing into your face

xtiansimon• 5 days ago

Kleptocracy in all its forms.

As this president likes to say,”A disgrace”. And every accusation is a confession.

Elections have consequences.

DivingForGold• 5 days ago

This merely "encourages" Trump and team to move the markets even more, to sell more subscriptions ?

He and his staff can plan out specific utterances that are substantial for moving the markets - endless feedback loop ?

penguin_booze• 5 days ago

The grift that keeps on grifting. To put it poetically, everyday discovering something brand new.

josefritzishere• 5 days ago

Insider Trading as a SaaS product? ITaaS?

xvxvx• 5 days ago

The government is one giant taxpayer-funded scam after another. Not that I like Trump in any way, but I’m somewhat thankful that he’s so brazen with the corruption and shedding light on everything.

There’s not a single respectable politician. Obama was worth $1-2M before he became president, and is now worth $70M+.

classified• 5 days ago

Insider trading as a service. The corruption knows no bounds.

koonsolo• 5 days ago

Americans are so proud of their 5th amendment. Yet when their country turns into a kleptocracy, nobody does anything.

soraminazuki2• 5 days ago

Funnily, the 5th is the "right to remain silent." I think you're talking about the 2nd Amendment.

Trump Media to sell instant access to 'market-moving' social posts

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