Dow falls over 500 points

[Colonel Flagg]

Actually, the front page of today's Inquirer states that someone may have fat-fingered a trade at the NYSE which resulted in a boatload of AmeriTrade/E-Trade computerized activity which drove the bungee-market we saw yesterday. If this is indeed the case, expect to see some new rules and regulations concerning computerized trading in the near future.

Originally Posted by TheSpec.com/business

A trading glitch, dubbed a fat-finger trade, was suspected of sparking the sell-off. CNBC and other financial news outlets reported that a Citigroup trader may have erroneously substituted "billion" for "million" in a large sale. And computer-generated trading may have made matters worse.

Citigroup and Procter & Gamble said they are examining trading activity on their stocks.

There was no major news to justify the sell-off. Neither the U.S. nor Canada released any significant economic reports, and what was released -- building permits in Canada and initial jobless claims in the U.S. -- was mildly positive.

[Zhukov]

I heard that on the news just then. To be honest it seems a little convenient, but I don't care enough to care.


Interesting that something so harmful to the economy can come about through a small mistake. Not a great message they are sending out about the strength of the free market.