What began as a glitch in pre-market trading turned into the NYSE’s longest trading halt since Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast. The ever-increasing complexity of US equity markets combined with an ever-decreasing pool of greater fools leaves windows open on down days (for it appears these ‘glitches’ only ever occur on down days) for markets to break. While NYSE traders defended the very market structure they have abhorred in the past as evidence that today was “not a failure,” we can’t help but find CNBC’s Scott Wapner’s amusing remark that “if retail investors want low cost liquid trading they are going to have learn to live with it” the perfect post-mortem for a rigged system brimming with confident insiders ever excited to take mom-and-pop’s money.
As Bloomberg reported, “What began Wednesday morning with a seemingly workaday software glitch soon escalated into one of the most startling computer outages in Wall Street history — and, for the Big Board, a race against the clock.”
At the 9:30 a.m. opening bell, traders’ orders for some stocks weren’t reaching the proper destinations for processing. Techies were frantic to fix the problem. At about 9:32 a.m., they succeeded.
Two hours later, boom.
One floor trader started shouting, “My handheld’s down! My handheld’s not working!†He and other traders hurried over to a ramp on the trading floor where NYSE executives usually meet with them to explain any problems. Not today. Three hours later, still nothing. Everyone was just standing around.
“The order flow wasn’t being entered into the display books on the trading floor,†said Pete Costa, president of Empire Executions Inc. who’s worked at the exchange in downtown Manhattan for 34 years. “As soon as that happened, the exchange shut down to understand what was going on.â€
Every computer screen “went this pukey, canary yellow color,†Costa said. “That means the stock has stopped trading.â€
