Slashdot Mirror
Computer Glitch Causes Havoc and Losses on Nasdaq
goombah99 writes "In an illustration of how fragile the electronic stock market system is the NY Times is reporting how a tiny computer glitch rippled through the Stock Markets with buyers who bought low and sold high taking huge losses. An erroneous large sell order was entered. Many people bought at this low price, then signed options contracts to sell these at higher prices, locking in a profit. Or so they thought utill the erroneous low sell order was removed. Now to honor their options they had to buy the stock at a higher price. Since exchanges trust each other's trade prices it rippled throughout the system. There does not seem to be any way to gracefully undo such errors."
I bet we can make the two of them poor, while making the two of us rich.
wud
... that the glitch caused SCOX to fall even more :)
Remeber being a kid and playing some game (like baseball or soccer)? What happened when someone really screwed up? or did something thinking they were allowed? You called "do over!!!"
That is the solution. On Monday morning, all of the trading managers go out on the floor, and start off the day by yelling "do over!!!" Every trader's account is reset to its pre-Friday state, and everyone is happy. Duh, it's so simple.
Lisa: Wow, Dad, you're surfing like a pro!
Homer: Oh, yeah! I'm betting on Jai-alai in the Cayman Islands, I invested in
something called "News Corp"--
Lisa: Dad, that's Fox!
Homer: [shrieks] Undo! Undo! [hits key, sighs]
$cat
Pffft...Screw that! Start making a list of people who are stocking up on toilet paper and gold coins. This is anarchy baby!
After the damage was done, the ticker read,
"YoUvE bEEn HaxOreD fuXOrS
Suckee it down!
wOOt!"
How ya like dat?