That is because the victims are vulnerable to exploitation, laws against this practice are not vigorously enforced and it is a hugely profitable trade.

VOA: standard.2009.08.21

The profitable trade all year has been to sell the extremes, and to buy the extremes.

FORBES: Baby Bull Market With Painful Birth Or Just Another Bounce?

The individual investor needs to ask: Can a buyback announcement turn into a profitable trade or investment?

FORBES: Buying In On Buybacks

Later, it secured a near-monopoly in the still more profitable trade in alum, vital to the textile industry.

ECONOMIST: Millennium issue: Banking