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CNBC Software Flaw Worth $1 Million?
Strudelkugel writes "BusinessWeek tells the story of one obsessive fan who unraveled a software glitch worth one million dollars. Jim Kraber was a regular CNBC viewer, and when the opportunity arose he took the 'Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge' very seriously. At one point, he was spending 12 hours a day on the contest, using three computers to trade 1,600 different portfolios in a theoretical stock game. His efforts got him into the top 20 finalists, but in the last round of trading he noticed some unusual patterns. 'One trader had a stream of near-perfect picks, consistently placing huge bets on shares that soared in after-hours trading. Kraber suspected the trader and perhaps others were getting help from someone who was changing their picks after the stocks' increases — and he quickly notified CNBC ... Kraber says CNBC rebuffed him at the time, but now it looks like he may have been right.'"
That's what you get in an industry built upon speculation and where fractions of a second can be the difference between loss and profit.
If it wasn't for all the interests and lobbies, we'd see a real-time system that trades for ex. once a day at market close or open. By realtime I mean the trade happens at the actual moment it's made, not just logged and then carried out en masse later on, just clearing the differences.
And I always wondered: what the hell's with shorting and margin trade. Why is this shit allowed at all. You can't do anything with such a model but speculate, taking money from people who produced it and randomly spreading it to a bunch of speculators.
you Sir, are an idiot.