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NASDAQ is down with a computer problem. ....

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by The Big Ragu, Aug 22, 2013.

  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I don't know if this is a big story, but I have never seen this. NASDAQ -- stocks and options -- has had trading halted for the last hour. A computer glitch, but the fact that they are not making a public statement is not inspiring confidence. At their request, all the other exchanges have halted trading.

    Supposedly, they are trying to clear open orders and they are going to reboot their system.

    It was a slow day. August doldrums with low volume. So if this was going to happen it is a relatively good day.

    But when they reopen, trading is going to be like an IPO when it first hits.

    Also, how much confidence should people have in the market moving forward? If this was a busy day, with economic news being released, rather than a slow day in August. ... this would be a complete disaster.
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    This is going to foster some AWESOME conspiracy theories.

    60 Minutes had a very good piece a few years back on the infrastructure and guts, the physical center of the stock market. It did not inspire confidence.
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The futures markets are still trading and Nasdaq 100 futures are still trading on the CME. I'm guessing it is mostly computers trading contracts back and forth, but if there are any actual people trading those futures, they are idiots. Volume has slowed down to a crawl, thankfully.

    About 25 minutes after trading stopped, the September contract dropped more than 50 ticks then came back up more than it lost and is off a bit from where they were. Actually, it just spiked up about 15 ticks, as I was hitting the post button. Crazy.

    This is bad. Traders potentially have a lot of money at stake -- stocks and options -- and they are sitting in an information void. When it reopens, there could be some crazy volatility.

    The closer they reopen to 4, if they do get it up today (and they really need to, or else there is going to be panic), the more of a selloff there is going to be when it reopens. A lot of traders go home flat every day. If they get themselves up and running at 3:30, I think there is going to be selling into it.
     
  4. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    It's back and going up.
     
  5. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    Time to go back to ticker tape and prices in 1/8ths. Can't trust these new-dangled fads. Now, what is Baltimore Opera Hat doing?
     
  6. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Cops have a security camera screen shot of the suspect.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  7. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I have no idea what the fallout was, but I can guarantee you it was small individual investors who got screwed over. There was about a 10 minute lag between when spreads started to widen and when they shut down. Options traders started to notice that the equity in their accounts was, in some case, showing zero. Even after they stopped taking orders, they gave no guidance about what was actually happening.

    There was a regulatory halt called, but for some reason word didn't get to the other exchanges immediately, so BATS and ARCA and NYSE, etc. were still quoting NASDAQ stocks -- some of the exchanges for an hour after the supposed halt. Anyone with a limit order in may have gotten stopped out because the spreads widened like crazy.

    I don't know how much of that happened, but I imagine there are at least a few people who are going to be cussing up a storm today.
     
  8. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I was wrong about the selling into the close, by the way. ... They reopened really close to the close, and it looked like it was pretty orderly. It helped that the Dow and S&P were up (first time in 7 days). The NASDAQ just followed along when it reopened.
     
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