Careful Trusting "News" | Fake News TradingOn Monday, April 7th, 2025 amidst incredible market volatility, you'd expect your most trusted news outlet to report on-the-minute news. But most importantly, accurate news .
With the markets down nearly 20% in ~4 trading days, every piece of information matters. But with the age of fast (social) media, news outlets will do anything possible to be the first to report. Even .... posting fake news. The way this works is they get news that's "probably true", they post it, then it's verified to be true. This may work often for them and when it doesn't, nobody really cares. But when you're talking about times of volatility unseen since COVID, all this nonsense gets exposed.
So - at roughly 10:10 AM EST, CNBC reported that there will be a "90-day pause on tariffs". A ground-breaking report that likely caused John Doe to buy $10M in NASDAQ:NVDA calls dated end of July because that's a no-brainer right? It surely cannot be false since CNBC is his go-to trusted news-source and there is just NO WAY that they would ever post any news without being 100% true and verified. ESPECIALLY news about TARIFFS -- the talk of the town (psh, the world actually) at the moment. 90 day pause? That's not something you report lightly. You know the ripple effect that'll have on the markets.
Result of that news report? The markets (e.g. CME_MINI:NQ1! ) jumped 6.60% in under 10 minutes.
Jane Doe likely saw that jump, looked at that news, and rebought her shares that she sold at the bottom earlier this morning.
Surely that news cannot be fake. It's a 90-day tariff pause. That's huge. Surely the White House will see "Yeah baby! We take credit for that".
Nope, at roughly 10:18 AM EST, the same CNBC reported that, "the 90-day pause on tariffs was fake news according to the White House". Results? Market right back down -6.5% in 20 minutes.
Suppose you FOMO'd into AMEX:SPY NASDAQ:QQQ calls.. well, you lost almost everything depending on the strike and date. In this market, manage your RISK and always hedge. Don't forget to thank CNBC, your most trusted news-source for that capital gain loss.
Welcome to trading in 2025. The age of report-first, verify-later. Welcome home.
Be careful listening to the news and take everything they say with a grain of salt. And as always, don't chase the news. KD out.