The Plunge Protection Team's job description is to prevent another 1987-like 'Black Monday' from occurring (the Dow fell 22.61% on 10-19-1987). How can that be done?

 

According to John Crudele of the New York Post, Robert Heller, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, described the modus operandi of the PPT as 'buying market averages in the futures market, thus stabilizing the market as a whole.'

 

The existence of the PPT was verified by former-Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos via an appearance on Good Morning America on September 17, 2000. At the time of Mr. Stephanopoulos' appearance, the Nasdaq (Nasdaq: QQQQ - News) was caught up in the dot.com bubble bust and had fallen 25% in less than six months, as did the Technology Select Sector SPDRs (NYSEArca: XLK - News).