Having beein the futures market for 2 years, I know the system of many brokers will crase from time to time. Did anyone experience the crash of computer system in the Exchange? It seems you could not use a second broker to hedge you position in such case. What could you do?
I can remember in the last 2 years, 2 major crashes of computer systems. Nasdaq was shutdown totally, NYSE as well. It's tricky because noone can trade at all. it's a total market halt. If you are in a position, it's stressing and frustrating. (for Nasdaq it was because of a human error with MCI worldcom (!) the network there. for NYSE it was an upgrade with new software I believe). Of course, brokers do suffer more often computer or network problems. The exchanges have an uptime (systems working within accepted parameters) which is the envy of any multinational corporation. I guess many will remember one of these crashes, which caused the market to close more than one hour after regular market hours (to compensate for the shutdown). tntneo