Hamas likely profited from Israel stock markets over short selling ahead of October terror attacks: US-based study
Also Read: Israel-Hamas war: How AI helps Israel army select bombing targets in Gaza Short selling is a way to bet against the value of a security. It is a trading strategy aimed at making a profit off an asset that is expected to drop in price. The seller ‘borrows’ a security and sells it on the open market with the goal of buying it back later at a lower price and pocketing the difference.
The report also touches on the use of cryptocurrency by pro-Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, for fundraising. Between August 2021 and June 2023, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah collectively received over $134 million in cryptocurrency, with Hamas alone receiving about $41 million during this period. -Firstly, the researchers used data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), to document the significant spike in short selling in the MSCI Israel ETF, days before the attack on October 7 - which has so far claimed the lives of over 1,200 people.
‘’…This increase in short selling is economically and statistically unusual. Nearly 100 per cent of the off-exchange trading volume in the MSCI Israel ETF on October 2 reported to FINRA consisted of short selling. We also document that the fraction of shares of this ETF lent to short sellers increased immediately before the attack,'' said the researchers in the study.
The professors referred to patterns in early April when it was reported that Hamas was initially planning its attack on Israel. "Short volume in EIS (the MSCI Israel ETF) peaked on April 3 at levels very similar to those observed on October 2, and was far higher by an order of magnitude than other days prior to April 3," they said. Also Read: Israel-Hamas war Day 60: Israeli forces
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