With both the authorities and online sleuths active in investigating the July 13 attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life, new details and observations seem to keep bringing significantly more questions than answers.
While some pertain directly to the would-be assassin – such as Thomas Crooks’ alleged ‘3 encrypted overseas accounts’ – others are linked to strange trading activity surrounding Trump Media (NASDAQ: DJT).
Did Trump Media stock trading volume jump ahead of the attack?
On July 17, Josh Walkos, one of the many researchers on X, observed that on July 12 – one day before the assassination attempt – the trading volume of DJT shares reached strange highs of 35,643,508 – 801% more than the 3,956,160 logged on Thursday, July 11.
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Trump Media share prices were also recorded as anomalous. For example, the daily high on Thursday, July 11, came in at $30.31, while one day later it was $15,638.32.
As Walkos himself speculated in the tweet, the Friday high was likely an error. Cross-references between the figures and those available through Yahoo Finance show that the $15,000 high was recorded only on the site of Trump Media.
A conspiracy or shoddy bookkeeping?
Other recording discrepancies also cast doubt on the theory that something shady was happening with DJT shares on the day before the attack.
Though both the TMTG website and Yahoo Finance agree that volume rose from Thursday to Friday, the former source records the surge as being from 3,956,160 to 35,643,508 and the latter from 4,056,500 to 4,411,100.
If the figures retrieved from Yahoo Finance are correct, the uptick becomes even less significant, given that the volume wasn’t particularly high compared to what has been observed previously – including earlier in July.
For example, DJT volume on July 10 is listed as having been 4,619,600, and on July 5 as 6,633,600.
Another explanation for the higher DJT trading volume
Additionally, though the numbers after July 13 are skewed by the assassination attempt and the associated media frenzy, the increase observable last week can also be attributed to another major event that was scheduled for – and indeed took place – this week: the Republican National Committee (RNC).
It was widely expected that Trump would be officially named the party’s nominee during the convention – an event that could have reasonably been expected to drive up Trump Media stock market activity, particularly given that the former president was mostly quiet following Biden’s debate performance and the subsequent chaos within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
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