Quote from jedwards:
Guys, the NYSE does not do software upgrades in the middle of the day. End of story.
Their explanation is BS, something else is behind the flash crash (ie. more HFT) but it wasn't a software upgrade.
Quote from krazykarl:
I believe there was a problem and that they did software work, but to do it then instead of off-hours means it was an emergency patch. There is legit downtime after 4pm EST so that means they needed to get that patch in ASAP to plug a hole - only rational reason to do it then instead of when they would have 8+ hours to validate a patch in production.(e.g. around 10pm EST)
Quote from gastropod:
Lets be real F'ING honest here...here is how this would have read in the main stream media in both scenarios...
ETF UP 9.6%:
Stocks rallied near the close. The SEC, NYSE and ARCA all declared how this showed the strength of the economy and the growing rally. Al A$$hole from SomeBig Institution was quoted as saying, "This late rally will continue into tomorrow."
ETF DOWN 9.6%:
After a software glitch was discovered at an exchange, clearly erroneous trades were broken to protect the integrity of the markets. John Dingleberry from AnotherBigFirm was quoted as saying, "This just goes to show the integrity of the markets. We can expect this integrity to play into this secular bull market."
-gastropod
Quote from jedwards:
In my experience, there isn't a single enterprise customer that would roll out any type of patch in the middle of the day. The NYSE has the most important computers in the world, besides the ones that control the nuclear weapons.