Making a Killing in the Stock Market During a Crisis

Perhaps I am naïve and too idealistic, but I find it repugnant that people take advantage of a crisis to make money in the stock market.  If you decide to sell stocks before the crisis hits when the prices are high and then purchase them again at lower prices once the full impact of the crisis has been felt, then you are basically stealing from other people.

Recent news reports have publicized multi-million-dollar sales of stock before the fall of the stock market by very wealthy senators and representatives.  After these sales generated public outrage, these so-called leaders denied any specific advanced knowledge and made the excuse that their financial advisors made these stock sales independently.

I find it reprehensible that leaders of our country would allow their financial advisors to pursue profit at a time when our financial system and economy are clearly at great risk.  This is a highly unethical decision.  Any profits made from these sales are not due to companies doing well or generating profits, they are simply the result of the COVID-19 crisis and the broken nature of our financial markets.  The money these people make is money that was lost by others who were not as keenly aware of the coming chaos.

I know that the stock market is as much a gambling casino as an investment vehicle.  In normal times I would begrudgingly give the devil his due and acknowledge that one person’s mistake is another’s good fortune in many transactions and that the market cannot be designed to prevent that type of zero-sum win/loss.

But in a time of world crisis, when people will be losing jobs and income on a massive scale, it is the very height of greed and callousness to knowingly and actively benefit from others’ financial misfortune.