That half-hour, thousand-point, momentary drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today? Oops…
In one of the most dizzying half-hours in stock market history, the Dow plunged nearly 1,000 points before paring those losses—all apparently due to a trader error.
According to multiple sources, a trader entered a “b” for billion instead of an “m” for million in a trade possibly involving Procter & Gamble.
During this afternoon’s half-hour ride, P&G fell from $60 to $39.37, then back again, eventually closing at $60.75. But that was nothing compared to Accenture, which over the course of a single minute plunged from $40 a share to one penny. Accenture shot back up to close at $41.09, down 2.6% for the day.
How fucked up is this? Both NASDAQ and the NYSE have announced that they would cancel all trades were a stock moved more 60% from it’s price at 2:40 PM, but there are sure to be parties who will have made or lost fortunes on today’s market… um… “glitch.”
So yeah, I guess the Republicans are right… Wall Street doesn’t just doesn’t need government regulators getting in the way of its smooth operations.
Hey, guess what everyone, the Efficient Market Theory is subject to human error!
@2 Efficient market theory went to hell in the Gulf oil patch last week, too.
And then there was Bush’s blind faith in the efficiency of mortgage securitization markets …
Pssst, Goldy, the Republicans aren’t in power. But the people you told us to vote for are.
EMH says nothing about short term swings; if Roger had a clue he’d know that.
and Republs are not anti regulation; we are pro police, pro make the market honest. Now injecting market regulation bills with spurious graft/kickbacks to Dem cronies is a reason to oppose lefty plans..
Hey Troll,
Who was blocking the reform bill from getting to the floor for debate?
I love the irony of a market swing under Obama, getting blamed by libs on Bush, while Chris “Can i get a loan” dodd is chairman
@4 “the Republicans aren’t in power”
Hate to tell you this, but they are. Republicans are vetoing every reform bill that makes it to the Senate. The solution is fewer Republicans and more Democrats in the Senate.
@6 “Republs are not anti regulation; we are pro police, pro make the market honest”
Sure they are … that’s why Bush’s SEC looked at porn while the economy burned down.
Wow, this guy is worse than the guy who was worse than Hoover.
It must really suck to be a Minority, Progressive, Obama supporter, Pro Union thug (aka Unemployed)these days.
aarggh. you guys still trot out the bush stuff; get a life. ok… dodd was in there whacking deals, barney frank loosening laws, most of wall street guys are dems…biggest donor to obama was wall street….
etc…
@5: “EMH says nothing about short term swings.”
Not exactly. Insofar as one asserts the strong form of the hypothesis, share prices reflect all information…which would tend to rule out speculative bubbles. Yet we have them.
Right-oof: “most of wall street guys are dems..”
Well, there it goes, right into the toilet….the belief that the Foreign-Born-One is really a socialist.
I am so disappointed.
Right-OFF: “I love the irony of a market swing under Obama…”
Providing yet another data point for the assertion that wingers are irony challenged.
12; is your point about speculative bubbles or about today’s wild swing(s)? need me to send you some markowitz?
I can’t believe all it takes is one missed keystroke to bring down the stock market.
Either the stock market is being run by idiots or we’re being treated as dupes.
Unfortunately either one’s a real possiblity.
righton @8,
Who blamed Bush? I blamed the market. And then I pointed out that Republicans oppose Wall Street regulatory reform. Maybe you have a guilty conscience?
@15: You claimed EMH said “nothing about short term swings”. A speculative bubble is typically a short term swing (couple of years at the most). The strong hypothesis of EMH does not appear to allow speculative bubbles. Yet they happen. This was stated quite plainly.
Call your buddy Harry and ask him if he’s read any Hirshleifer or Subrahmanyam.
Yeah, dems should make regulations that prevent the market from falling below 13K…. sigh
I hate it when the Invisible Hand of the Market(TM) has a spasm.
According to legend, a USC economics class had the following question on their final exam. “If three different persons are driving from Los Angeles to Anaheim on the freeway, which would arrive first: (a) the one in the left lane, (b) the one driving in the center lane, (c) the one driving in the right lane, (d) the driver weaving through all three lanes, or (4) other (discuss).
The correct answer, under EMT, was “other” – all drivers would arrive at their destination at exactly the same time.
What this may actually demonstrate is that the entire securities market has been turned into a massive, computerized slot machine whose operators continually manipulate the odds to someone’s benefit…and it certainly ain’t us mere mortals. It may be that whoever was on helm watch yesterday merely sneezed while leaning against the jog stick.
Yep, someone made a fortune off this apparent market manipulation.
I’m waiting for the heads to roll or the official ‘it was just a glitch’ or “there’s no evidence” announcement from the government.
@4 – Government isn’t like a video game where you hit “reset” every 4 years and the score goes back to zero. Thank god the republicans aren’t in complete control like they were for several years. But their anti-consumer, anti-regulation legacy remains, one example of which is the market near-collapse, still wreaking havoc all over the world, which was a direct result of Republican policies and which began on their watch.
You can pretend it ain’t so all you want, but to do so you’d have to ignore Greenspan on YouTube admitting as much.
25: “Government isn’t like a video game”
Man, did you have to give it to them straight, like this? They don’t handle reality very well, so try to be easy on our trolls.