The Treasury Department fined Bank of America $1.2 billion for money-laundering violations. The timing was immaculate. One day before earnings. Someone in compliance woke up and checked the calendar.
Banks launder money. This surprises no one. The fine exists so we can all pretend the system works. Bank of America will pay. The stock will move based on whether they beat earnings by three cents. The fine will not matter by lunch.
Retail traders will see this headline and panic-sell their four shares. They will post on Reddit about how the market is rigged. They will be correct for the wrong reasons. Then they will buy calls on a pharmaceutical penny stock because someone posted a rocket emoji.
The Treasury Department collected $1.2 billion. This money will fund something important. Or it will disappear into the federal budget like a fart in a hurricane. Either way, Bank of America will report revenue in the tens of billions. The fine is a rounding error with a press release.
Technical analysts do not care about money laundering. We care about the 50-day moving average. The RSI. Whether the MACD crossed over while Jupiter was in retrograde. A $1.2 billion fine changes none of that. The chart does not have a conscience.
Bank of America stock will trade based on interest rate expectations and loan growth and whatever Jim Cramer screamed about that morning. Not because they got caught doing crimes. Crimes are priced in. They have been priced in since the Medici family invented fractional reserve banking.
The real story is the intern who had to schedule this press release for maximum humiliation. That person deserves a raise and therapy.
Photo by Steve Pancrate on Unsplash
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