I really doubt that any *FIRM blew up. maybe a trader or two but it happened so fast that I doubt anyone got crushed. 3 min straight down, 3 straight up. I know that our software locked up and for the majority of the move and all we saw were stale quotes so very few people capitalized. professional traders in general see a move happening like that and will size themselves down to 500 shares or whatever because of the whipsaws. lockouts are still in effect so anyone that blows themselves up by taking a couple of 50 cent to a point losses and theyre done for the day. risk controls are in place for a reason...
some sterling server went down, automated orders could not be canceled, new orders could not go out. so you get filled bid bid bid, but theres no profit orders going out afterward. forget you couldn't punch out if you got fucked...you couldn't even take profit, no new orders going through...only old orders you had got swept. and no, i didn't get raped. but i can only imagine what kind of a debacle it was for a firm with a few automated traders that didn't have anyway to hedge in a separate account. risk controls...what risk controls.....theres no new orders being sent out....risk manager is boned, trader is boned = firm not happy.
yeah i mean its one thing it watch aapl just melt in your face 50 pts with no chance of any trade being broken. but if you were able to get in and out at your own discretion, doesn't matter if books were crossed, as long as order goes out. but its another to just sit in some gay stock bid bid bid and have a. no new order issue, only old get filled....so no stops, no profits, just entires. b. risk manager can't even punch you out its pretty much a shit situation. so for some auto or semi auto guys at a firm that got effected, sad face for everyone.
Its unfortunate that in this business so many people gain satisfaction from the misfortune of others. Maybe that isn't the motive behind the thread but I'll say it anyway.
well, you are totally wrong about my intentions. as a trader trying to survive in this business i simply want to know about the risks involved. May 6th was an important test and not every trader/firm made it unscarred. Had i not asked the question, how would i have learned about Sterling being down?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I've never heard of sterling, but it appears that the above person was talking about a server for sterling (whatever sterling is---be it a prop firm or bank, etc...) that crashed during that remarkable volatility. So it doesn't sound like a firm went down during that activity. Depending on the firm's ('the firm' as I use it here should be interpreted as 'any firm') number of servers and other technical considerations a server going down during periods of high volatility is not an uncommon occurrence by any means. To some extent, it's a risk that exists at all times. I don't know of anyone that lost money after that move...I know people that lost during that move and recovered afterward (myself included). There may have been some friends of mine that lost in it, but since I was trading remotely that day out-of-state, I have no idea about the fortunes of my peers in the office. I'm sure there are some that hit their daily loss limit. Like I said before about your intentions regarding this thread... I never said it was your intention and I didn't mean to imply it. There are many people on this site (and on trading floors and in America in general) that seem to gain satisfaction from the misfortune of others. I'm not saying that you're guilty of it as well, I'm just making a statement based on my perception. But really my statement is subject matter for an entirely different thread that I do not care to begin. You're right about May 6th being an important test --- of system capabilities for prop desks, for individual traders like us, as well as exchanges and ECNs. I see it as a reminder of the electronic trading environment we all now operate in. Sadly for guys like us, opportunities like that of May 6th will soon be legislated away.
Your sarcasm is misplaced. It's like saying: "I own a baseball bat and I can't care less who the Mets buy their bats from."