as title says- i found out that the HKFE closed for a typhoon AFTER it was already closed! got an alert from IB @ 11.47 PST that the HKFE was closing for the typhoon @ 11.45 PST! i called IB in HK to see wtf and when they were notified- they claim they were notified AFTER the market was already shut down. anyone have any insight into this? IB is HORRIBLE about deciminating info, so i question what they say. hard to imagine that the exchange gives zero notification whatsoever (IB's claim) that they're shutting down the market if, as IB claim, there was no notification- then it's tough shit. if, instead, IB knew and didn't get around to notifying traders, then it's a big problem. for me it's definitely a big problem, as i now have a position hanging in the wind over the weekend. now i have to try to figure out how to hedge the HHI tomorrow somehow- or maybe try to figure out a hedge tonight using the Taiwan futures. urgh... by pure luck i closed 1/2 the position just a minute 43 before it closed, or i'd really be screwed.
I am sorry to hear about your predicament. I noticed a quick blurb on it on bloomberg.com http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3hZ6ihynRUk&refer=home
Sheesh - not sure what to suggest or what I would do in that scenario. How about hedging with the Nikkei (SGXNK)?
It's a standard procedure that the Hong Kong Exchange closes 15 minutes after a Typhoon Signal Number 8 is raised. This typhoon actually passed Hong Kong a few days ago, and then turned around, and seems to have caught the observatory by surprise. http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc_pos.htm The HK Observatory had mentioned the possibility of the Number 8 being raised at 15:30. However, the signal was actually raised one hour earlier. We were not expecting it, and did not find out until much later, neither were we given any advance notice. For future reference you can check out the observatory at the following website: http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm Peak typhoon season is August/September, unforunately, this website ets too overloaded during approaching typhoon's so wouldn't have helped too much today either. If we'd known then we'd have told you earlier.
I'll add that the market was caught by surprise as well and on our trading desk (Timber Hill) we were receiving calls from other brokers and competitors asking if the T-8 flag was really raised an hour early. This certainly caught the market by surprise and it will definitely be interesting reading about the complaints and demands for an investigation in tomorrows paper. I'm really sorry that you couldn't get out of your position any sooner but we did our best to send the bulletin out as soon as we were able to confirm the news.
IF that's the case then won't IB have at least 14minutes to warn your customers ? Unless you are saying that the there was no broadcast from both the met service and the Exchange.
I can't speak for the CS side but it took us a few minutes on the trading desk to confirm the signal was raised. However, a notice then needs to be written and broadcast to clients. Broadcasts need to be sent via authorized people and as I said, it caught us and the market by surprise. We'll use this as a learning experience and endeavor to get the word out faster next time. It's no consolation but looking in my inbox, I rec'd a bunch of other emails from the exchange and other brokers/firms we have relationships and all of them came right around 2:45. The earliest was at 2:43, the latest shortly before 3 PM.
sorry, i don't buy it. i've learned that bloomberg put out the story 9 minutes before it closed. it's pretty lame that IB doesn't make it a priority to disseminate such critical, important info immediately. if you knew in advance that this was a possibility, you should have sent a ;heads up' alert to let your clients know that it could be a possibility. why was this not done? i wouldn't have traded HSI or HHI if i'd have known it was possible- maybe that's the answer right there- IB would have lost a bunch of commissions. the story i got from your CS is that you were notified after the exchange closed- sorry, not buying it. you should have put out the alert right away. as it is, i don't have a very good way to hedge my position and, given how the HHI will likely gap 400-800 points on monday (one way or the other), i'm pretty screwed. i'm sure i'm not the only one. as to your comments- yes, it would be my hope that you @ IB use the lessons learned here- thing is, given the way IB positions itself and who it serves, this is something that should have been worked out in dress rehearsal, not on stage with real $ @ stake...
thanks Dan for the bloomberg link. unfortunately, the sgxnk doesn't correlate very highly to HHI. the closest i've got is STW (Taiwan)- i'm sitting here contemplating, as it's not a great alternative either (much better than NK though). kinda get the feeling that whatever i do, it may just add to my risk. geesh, ANY market but HK, and certainly anything but the HHI- geesh. so much for sleeping tonight...
thanks for the weather link. i also just subscribed to the hkex.com alerts (no idea when they sent it out to subscribers). had a pretty good day and night trading too- this is disheartening because of the HUGE gap that will occur on monday- could be for me, murphy's law says against- a coin flip, not exactly trading...