UAL, AMR Options Soared; U.S. Probes Pre-Attack Trading Surge
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Trading skyrocketed in options that bet on a drop in UAL Corp. and AMR Corp. stock during the days before terrorists crashed hijacked United and American airlines jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the 110-story 2 World Trade Center, and Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the destroyed twin towers, also experienced pre-attack trading of 12 times to more than 25 times the usual volume in so-called put options that profit when stock prices fall, according to Bloomberg data.