What happens when an exchange goes down?

[pclark]

What happens if you are in an order? Has anyone had this happen? What do you do to protect yourself? Just curious.

Paul

 

[jeb9999]

It has happened to plenty of traders the times that Globex has crashed. Better have an account (or backup account) that lets you trade on other exchanges and other instruments to hedge your position.

 

[osorico]

Quote from pclark:

What happens if you are in an order? Has anyone had this happen? What do you do to protect yourself? Just curious.

Paul

If the order executed, you own it! And USUALLY all GTC/GTD orders, including stops if held at the exchange are cancelled. Only contigency is a different vehicle on a different exchange. Of course, you should confirm it is the exchange that is down, and not an individual broker/clearing firm. In which case, a backup account with a different clearing firm should work fine.

Osorico

 

[pclark]

So your saying all orders are cancelled where the exchange went down?

So if I were in or out of the money when it went down they would cancel my orders wherever they were at? Thanks...

Quote from osorico:

If the order executed, you own it! And USUALLY all GTC/GTD orders, including stops if held at the exchange are cancelled.
Osorico

 

[qazmax]

Call your broker and get the status of your order at the time it went down.

1. Get an out or a fill.
2. Get the name of whom you spoke with and the time in case they have to play the recording later.

 

[Glbnoel]

In some cases, if you have 5 ES positions for example, you may offset it through a pit order, buy buying/selling 1 S&P. IIRC, if Globex does go down, pit markets are still open.

 

[osorico]

Quote from pclark:

So your saying all orders are cancelled where the exchange went down?

So if I were in or out of the money when it went down they would cancel my orders wherever they were at? Thanks...

ITM, OTM, or ATM is irrelevant. If the order(s) executed before the exchange went down, you live with the ramifications of the fill(s). Orders that are un-filled, including stops are usually cancelled outright. There are only 2 alternatives...
1) offset open positions with a product on a different exchange.
2) wait it out.

As mentioned, some products are fungible with pit-traded instruments. For instance 2 YM = 1 DJ. Talk to your broker for details. In the past, this was my preferred method of offset for open YM positions. The eCBOT was somewhat infamous for complete failure. The eCBOT ag complex in particular caused the entire eCBOT to go down, sometimes for hours! That was rectified with the move to Globex. ICE seems to be where the problems exist currently.

Osorico

 

[pclark]

OK, thanks for the answers. So, how rare is this? Once a year? Once every 5 years? Thanks....