Glitch in the System
by ilene - May 8th, 2010 1:21 pm
Glitch in the System
Courtesy of MIKE WHITNEY writing at Counterpunch
On Thursday, shares tumbled across all major indexes on fears that Greece’s debt woes would spread to other vulnerable countries in the E.U.. What began as a down-day on Wall Street, quickly turned into a full-blown rout as blue chips, financials, techs and transports were all caught in a program-trading downdraft. The bloodletting was mind-numbingly swift. In one 15 minute period, stocks plunged more than 300 points (and nearly 1,000 points at their nadir) before bouncing off the bottom and clawing back some of the day’s losses. For the big brokerage houses and investment banks, the massacre could not have happened at a worse time. Skittish retail investors have already been steering clear of Wall Street, convinced that the markets are rigged. Thursday’s ructions are sure to keep them on the sidelines even longer.
From Reuters:
"During the sell-off, Procter & Gamble shares plummeted nearly 37 percent to $39.37… prompting the company to investigate whether any erroneous trades had occurred. The shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but the significantly lower share price was recorded on a different electronic trading venue.
"We don’t know what caused it," said Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Jennifer Chelune. "We know that that was an electronic trade … and we’re looking into it with Nasdaq and the other major electronic exchanges." Mathew Goldstein, Reuters)
When stocks nosedive, falling prices can trigger stop-loss orders which spark a selloff. Add high-frequency trading to the mix--which accounts for more than 70 per cent of daily volume--and a normal correction can quickly turn into a major crash. The high-speed computers make millions of trades in a flash without human intervention. The potential for a catastrophe like Thursday, is a near-certainty.
"Guys are getting carried out on stretchers"
From the Wall Street Journal:
"An electronic trading algorithm issued by an unknown trader caused a massive selloff in futures contracts tied to the S&P 500, according to a long-time electronic trader of the products. A mistaken order was issued to sell $16 billion, rather than $16 million, of e-mini S&P futures contracts, according to the person….
“Jay Suskind, a senior vice-president at Duncan-Williams Inc., said the combined string of negative news about Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the Greek debt crisis and the rise in Libor evoked memories of the