Tel Aviv bourse says no unusual trading ahead of Oct 7 Hamas attack

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said on Tuesday a report by U.S. researchers suggesting there were investors in Israel who may have profited from prior knowledge of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack was inaccurate and its publication irresponsible. 

Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr. from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares – when investors bet on share prices to fall – leading up to the attacks, which triggered Israel's ongoing war with Hamas. 

The activity, they said, "exceeded the short-selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis" such as the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19. 

But the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) said the authors miscalculated, since share prices are listed in agorot, which are similar to cents and pence, rather than shekels – putting the potential short sale profit at just 32 million shekels. 

Israel's securities regulator said it had been aware of the report for a week and was in contact with the researchers, but declined to comment while it investigates the TASE's rebuttal. 

($1 = 3.7243 shekels)