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Comment by srssays | Hacker News Reader

Pound sterling...

Woah wait when did the pound lose 25% of its value due to a SEC ruling?

There were two separate events, adding up to 25%. The first happened instantly as the Brexit result became known. The second happened on Oct 7 at the opening of trading when there was nobody around who wanted to buy...

I find that Bitcoins are an effective hedge against conventional wisdom.

I wouldn't call Brexit a "minor ruling".

Could be a reference to Brexit? The pound suffered pretty severely after the referendum.

To be fair, sec ruling is a much smaller measure than country-wide referendum on economicy policy

Read about Soros breaking the Bank of England sometime, it's great stuff. Black Wednesday I think is the name of the event in popular culture

Great stuff in the sense that one person can directly profit to the tune of a billion dollars, by manipulating currency markets, at the cost of the taxpayers of an entire nation. So, not great stuff at all.

He did not manipulate pound. UK government manipulated it by locking the exchange rate that did not reflect the fundamentals. Pound was doomed, Soros just profited from the crash. So, yes, great stuff - government should pay for its stupidity. Unfortunately they pay with our money...

He shorted the pound enough to move the market significantly, and his buyback strategy deliberately prevented any stabilisation. The crash wouldn't have happened or at least wouldn't have been as bad without his involvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_oET45GzMI

a good overview of the origins of the crisis. how politicians for their own shortsighted gains made one poor decision after another and led the country into financial crisis.

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