Let the Conspiracy Theories begin....

I just got a message from a co-worker... He's not quite as paranoid as Fox Mulder, but he's a little too interested in conspiracy theories. I'm sure you know the type... he means well, but sometimes he's a little "spooky."

Anyway, he passed along a new conspiracy theory... saying that there would be another terrorist attack in the next month.

His evidence? An anonymous investor has purchased a total of 245,000 "put options" on a European stock index. In essence, this mysterious investor is gambling that the price of this particular fund will drop by more than a third, sometime before September 21st.

Now, I don't know crap about the stock market. I know it goes up... I know it goes down. But if one of the mutual funds in my IRA dropped by a third, that would probably mean that the stock market as a whole had dropped by about that same amount.

So, how does this all tie in with conspiracies and terrorists? I've seen news reports in the past that report similar activities shortly before September 11, 2001. Apparently, "put options" skyrocketed on United Airlines, American Airlines, along with prominent WTC occupants Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

What does this all mean? Hell if I know. The good news? The 9/11 Commission debunks the whole insider trading link to September 11th, and says the "apparently suspicious [activity] proved innocuous."

I wonder what Fox Mulder would think? Maybe the aliens could tell us.