Computer Problem Caused Price Errors on NASDAQ

buckthorn writes "An article running on Yahoo News states: 'A computer problem at an unidentified stock trader caused erroneous, exaggerated prices -- some as high as $950 per share -- to be posted to the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday morning for 1,680 different stocks, a spokeswoman for the Nasdaq said.'"

Mr President, Dr. Evil is on the line...

[TripMaster Monkey]

Good afternoon gentlemen. As you are all no doubt aware, I have perfected a method of manipulating the various stock exchanges throughout the world. You received proof of this this morning, as relatively worthless Nasdaq stocks such as Maxco, Inc. and J.W. Mays Inc. traded briefly at hundreds of times their real value. I believe my latest caper, which I've puckishly dubbed 'Operation Stocking-Stuffer', is certainly worthy of your attention...

You see, gentleman, when 'Operation Stocking-Stuffer' is deployed in earnest, all stock exchanges will be laid waste...all trade will effectively cease, and global civilization itself will crumble...that is...unless you pay me...

One hundred billion trillion fafillion dollahs!!!

(cue dramatic music)

Gentleman, you have my demands...peace out.

screaming into cell phone...

[pudding7]

Sell! Sell!

Take those transactions back!

[BorgCopyeditor]

I call do-over!

Not this again

[Anonymous Coward]

A problem where technology caused wildly erroneous stock prices? I liked it the first time around when it was called the dot com bubble. The parties were better.

Dr. Evil gets frist post!

[screwthemoderators]

Was first post on a non-duped Slashdot story on part of the demands?

Wow, that was close.

[robyannetta]

Just as long as the price of this stock [yahoo.com] wasn't artificially manipulated by $950 per share, we could have been in hot water.

Re:Mr President, Dr. Evil is on the line...

[xCepheus]

I can picture the engineers over at Nasdaq...

(a huge server farm where the racks are shaking violently and making strange noises)

Engineer1: I need a young priest and an old priest!
Engineer2: The power of Christ compels you!

I'M RICH BIATCH!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Those 100 SCOX shares really paid off!

W00t!!

SCOX?

[WillRobinson]

I thought this was why scox went up, but when we looked at the time it went up, it didnt conside with the error. Oh well, guess its just a pump/dump for monday.

Re:Not this again

[Anonymous Coward]

How about the second time around, when the wildly erroneous prices were caused by SCO FUD?

I'm rich!

[kihjin]

Those transactions, which were made 15 percent above or below the previous day's closing price, will be "broken" -- the buyer will get his or her money back, and the stock will revert to the seller.

I wont let them. They can't take it back.... right? ...

What the hell is banging on my door? They are insi#%*#&)^*!&$NO CARRIER

ObOfficespace quote

[southpolesammy]

Michael Bolton: I must have put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. Shit. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.

Re:"COMPUTER" error

[freeplatypus]

It was either a programming error (human) or an operator error (human) or some other cause. OK, clearly hardware faults can cause data corruption, but this is really pretty rare and it's hard to believe that a hardware fault could cause such a widespread fault.

Another good reason to eliminate The Human Factor. Let the Robot Age begin!

Been going on for over a year now...

[tktk]

Just look at SCO's share prices.

Damnit!

[Gogogoch]

Damnit, I could have made some money! Except that my funds are tied-up in a Nigerian opportunity at the moment. But boy-o-boy is that opportunity gonna make me rich! Rich! I say!

Re:screaming into cell phone...

[whackco]

Bastard! You beat me to my punchline by a whole minute. Damn Friday the 13th!

Re:screaming into cell phone...

[M3rk1n_Muffl3y]

1. buy stock 2. ????????? 3. sell stock 4. profit

In other news

[hsmith]

Microsoft blames IE Share loss [slashdot.org] on NASDAQ computer errors

Trading Technologies

[Anonymous Coward]

This issue was actually caused by trading software provider Trading Technologies (who are currently suing all of their clients due to supposed patent violations). It was caused by a bug in their automatic spread trading module, which caused it to run amok on one of their client's trading consoles.

Re:ObOfficespace quote

[Joe the Lesser]

Main Entry: launder
Function: transitive verb
: to transfer (money or instruments deriving from illegal activity) so as to conceal the true nature and source

Re:Input Validation?

[k4_pacific]

I guess they need some validation code to alert them of a problem.

if(new_price > old_price + 900.0)
{
// holy shit!!
int fd = open("/dev/ticker", O_WRONLY);
while(1)
write(fd, "TILT! ", 6);
}

Re:Praetorians?

[pilgrim23]

No, but they did trade at 3.14159265

Re:screaming into cell phone...

[jazman_777]

Sell! Sell!

Thanks for the tip! I made money with Sun stock!!

2 Revealed!

[Aggrav8d]

Step 1: Buy worthless penny stock
Step 2: Await computer error
Step 3: Profit!!!1!

In Soviet..erm, I'd like to see a beow...uh, I for one, welc... oh, just forget it.

Re:Not as uncommon as you think

[bonzoesc]

It's like that, but not as gay because there's no purple elves.