A report of trading problems rippled across traders' screens
Wednesday morning, causing confusion in the busy moments after the
market opened regarding the status of New York Stock Exchange.
Starting at about 9:40 a.m., messages posted on Twitter referred
to a picture of what appeared to be a notice to traders about
trading problems. The Reuters newswire ran a headline at 9:58 a.m.
that said stocks whose symbols begin with "R" through "Y" were
unavailable for trading at the NYSE.
A spokesman for NYSE Euronext (NYX), the Big Board's parent,
told The Wall Street Journal that, contrary to reports, the NYSE
was functioning normally. And the exchange operator sent a notice
to customers, at 10:01 a.m. EST, with the same message.
Reuters later published an article that noted the NYSE said its
systems were functioning normally. A Reuters spokeswoman didn't
immediately respond to requests for comment.
An image posted on the financial and economic blog ZeroHedge.com
and elsewhere contained an image with the text, "Stocks beginning
with symbols R through Y at the NYSE are currently unavailable for
trading" under the heading "Interactive Brokers Bulletin
Board."
The Zero Hedge post didn't say the NYSE was having problems, but
referred to the bulletin-board image, a representative of the site
said via email in response to a request for comment.
Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (IBKR), a U.S. brokerage, runs an
online trading site and alerts customers to problems in its own
systems and at exchanges. It also runs an online discussion forum
that "allows IB customers to share ideas, ask other IB customers
questions, and post programming code," according to its website. An
Interactive Brokers spokeswoman declined to comment on the episode
or confirm the authenticity of the bulletin-board notice.
The episode follows high-profile glitches that have plagued
trading over the past year and drawn scrutiny to exchanges'
operations. But several traders said Wednesday morning they weren't
rattled by the faulty reports, which didn't show up on computer
systems they use to monitor status alerts from exchanges.
"Honestly, when I got the message saying that there isn't a
problem, I didn't even know there was a problem in the first
place," said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at Meridian
Equity Partners, a NYSE member firm.
Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com
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