SEC Blames Computer Algorithm For 'Flash Crash'

Lucas123 writes "The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an 87-page report (PDF) on the results of a months-long investigation into the May 6 'flash crash' that sent the Dow tumbling almost 1,000 points in a half hour. The Commissions are holding a single trading firm's automated trade execution platform responsible for the crash, saying it dumped 75,000 sell orders into the Chicago Mercantile Exchange over a period of minutes causing an already volatile market to come crashing down. The SEC has already enacted some quick rules to pause trading if a stock price should rise or fall by 10% in a five minute period, but the regulators said they expect the results of the investigation to prompt additional rules limiting the functions of automated computer trading systems."

Comments

Automated trading ~ Electronic voting machines

[rsborg]

They're both scams. Scams by the rich and established powers to prevent their apple-cart from ever getting upset. They are both extremely vulnerable and the respective lynchpins of critical parts of a developed country: the marketplace is the lifeblood of the capitalism, and voting is the core of democracy.

I used to be sure we lived in a capitalist democracy. Now I'm no longer sure. With the front-running and voting scandals, with enough "people being taking out of the loop", how do we know what's real anymore?

Oh, what's that you say, the corporate-controlled media will tell me all about it?

We're on the precipice of a potentially dark and troublesome time.