I have not heard of circuit breakers for individual stocks before today's crazy movement. Google is no help about this. I only see info about the normal market wide circuit breakers. I am wondering if circuit breakers exist for options as well... So how do we find info about the circuit breaker setting for each stock and all that jazz?
This is currently being debated by the SEC. Currently no circuit breaker on individual stocks aside from your basic halt.
There is none right now - just the overall circuit breaker policy. My first thought is that limits create confusing markets that scare investors - being locked limit against your positions for days on end is not something Joe 401K signed up for. But at the same time, I know P&G should never have traded in the 30's, let alone at $0.01 (which I'm not sure it did). So I don't know what the right policy is.
Ah, I figured out what happened at the NYSE on Thursday. It went into "slow mode" on certain stocks, but those particular stocks continued trading elsewhere and I thought the NYSE halted trading on those stocks. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703338004575230440147772822.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us Still, I think the "slow mode" isn't a bad idea. Completely halting trading on a company like WorldCom or Enron would be a bad idea.