When your Wall Street investments head south, you should know about the Pirate Stock Exchange.

From the point of view of what in the financial world is called "technical analysis," the summer months are the some of the worst times to be fully invested in Wall Street.  With current debates over the solvency of Greece, the threat of raising of the national debt limit, the robustness of the U.S. economy, most major U.S. stock indices are teetering on the brink of a down-turn.  So If you were wondering if there are other places to invest your money these days, I bet I'm going to tell you about a new exchange that most people don't know about:  The Somali Pirate Exchange.  

Yes, you read it correctly:  there's a specific place in the world when a person can deploy his money and other resources--all with the expectation that such an investment strategy will pay off big-time in the pirate trade!  If the Somali Pirate Exchange is not something your familiar with, let me give you a glimpse of what it's like.  

It's formally called the Harardheere Stock Exchange [HSE]--in Harardheere, Somalia--is the world's first pirate stock exchange.  Investments there are made with the expectation that investors will receive a share in the ransoms pirates collect.  And the amounts are not trivial.  In a recent Wall Street Journal article, a successful campaign against a Western commercial ship can bring in as much as $10 million.  

The HSE operates around the clock and has about 70 investment opportunities listed at any point in time.  The same WSJ article quotes a former pirate:

"The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials. . . . We've made piracy a community activity.  

In a Reuter's account of the HSE, a young female investor is reported to have been very pleased with her investment:  

Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel.

"I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation," she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony.

"I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the 'company'."

International piracy adds about $12 billion to the cost of international commerce and in just Somalia alone more than 20 ships and 400 hostages are currently being held, as reported by the International Chamber of Commerce.  

Since I would expect most of the readers of KMOB to be ethical investors, this doesn't really seem like a promising, sure-fire cure for the summer investment doldrums in the civilized world--but it is intriguing to know about.  This is the case if only to show, unfortunately, how little has changed--in some places of the world, at least in terms of the way money is made.  Just when we thought piracy as a way of economic life was only found in history books, it turns out that that's simply not the case!  

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Follow Keith's biz blog on Twitter for updates and see more of what he's reading about on his Facebook Page. If you are inclined, you can write him at kmurray@bryant.edu.