Thursday, May 06, 2010

Oops

CNBC:

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, a component in the Dow...

Sources tell CNBC the erroneous trade may have been made at Citigroup...

The Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange took the unusual step of declaring that they would cancel some trades that took place during the height of the selloff. Both markets said they will cancel all trades more than 60 percent above or below market that occurred between 2:40 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. New York time.

...Amid the sell-off, Procter & Gamble shares plummeted nearly 37 percent to $39.37 at 2:47 p.m. EDT

It reminds me of the scene from Tommy Boy where Chris Farley accidentally rips the door off David Spade's 'cherry' convertible.

Carefully positioning it back on its hinges, Spade returns and pulls the door open at which point Farley exclaims:

What'd you do?

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