Fat Finger

 

Friday, May 6th, was the one year anniversary of the Fat Finger stock market crash. I almost forgot all about it, which is apparently what we were supposed to do. So here's the review.

A year ago on May 6th, the world watched in shock and horror as the stock market took an unprecedented crash. More precipitous than anything that had ever happened before, stocks prices plummeted, triggering even more drastic sell-offs until it looked like we had just witnessed the 1929 crash on steroids. The stock market lost 10% of its value in a couple of hours. No one knew why it started, but once sell-offs began, computer programs took over making it worse.

By the end of the day, reports trickled out that a Citigroup trader had entered a 'b' on a sale instead of an 'm' turning 'million' into 'billion' by accident. A couple of days later a different explanation was given about a relatively small sale that caused a teetering market to plunge.

Either explanation sucks. Is Wall Street so rickety that an unexpected sale tumbles the whole structure or do some careless traders have ability to trigger a crash through carelessness?

Who ever is in charge of such things- I don't even know who might have this power- invalidated some of the sales. So some random, anonymous people made or lost fortunes, but everyone knows that the stock market is a roulette wheel. Excuses were constructed, some amends were made, and the event has been entirely forgotten even though it almost brought the Western World to its knees.

That kind of power shouldn't be forgot.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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