Russian Spies Like ETFs

“It might be the other way around, where they are concerned with us attacking them,” Eric Hunsader, who runs Nanex, said in the Mother Jones article, pointing to unusual movements in trades of RSX and RUSL. “It was something that was definitely manipulated. You don’t generally see that kind of movement go on…Maybe they’re concerned about us screwing with them.”

Notably, they might have been interested in the “trading robots,” or algorithm-based trades that could be triggered without a moments notice.

The Russians would at least find some good deals as the MSCI Russia Index’s price-to-earnings ratio is hovering around 4, compared to the S&P 500’s stock index of 18.1, Bloomberg reports.

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