To GLOBEX traders: Mon Jan 14 06:37:46 2008 EST GLOBEX CANCELLED TRADES UPDATE Further to our earlier bulletins; although not confirmed, we understand that there was a mass order error by another financial firm which resulted in a large imbalance in the GLOBEX order book, and the subsequent spike in the market. GLOBEX cancelled (busted) trades which occurred outside of the no-bust range in their equity index futures and future options. We believe we have manually removed all of the cancelled trades from customer accounts. This is a manual process, so customers should use the previous price ranges as guidance, and contact customer service if you believe that your position is incorrect. It is important to note that all other trades will stand. This includes trades which have been executed because of the large market move, including stop and conditional orders that may have been triggered by the price move. It shall also include orders that were triggered by an execution price of a trade that was subsequently cancelled by GLOBEX. Clients should manage their current positions. We understand that clients may be adversely affected by the ruling made by GLOBEX, and have made a formal complaint to the exchange.
This is BS for anyone who got long below the bust range and covered just above it. The moron who made the error needs to buck up. I can't believe GLOBEX doesn't have a safeguard in place for these obvious fat fingers, like: You should't be able to clear the book for 30 handles.
I agree. At least in premarket trading the maximum order size per minute should be limited. But the trades had to be busted. Imagine someone who was long and the drop forced a margin call and they sold his Minis at near the low. Poor guy.
Yes, the bust needs to be in effect BUT the exchange should have spit the initial fat finger order out. They need a rule that will disallow a market order that clears more than a specified numer of price levels, if it exceeds the level then the exchange should reject it.
It wasn't a mistake. The maximum order size for the E-minis is like a 1000 contracts or so. It was a blatant attempt at spiking the market lower to spook longs and run stops. The CME had to bust the trades.
What if the order wasn't some idiot but instead related to an extraordinary news event, for example? Anyway, the last time this happened as I recall was in the 1Q of 01 or 02 - on a CSCO earnings relaease just after the pit closed. It was a mess to sort out. There are ET threads on it - great arguments on both sides of the issue.
This is one of the reasons that trading intraday charts especially overnight intraday charts is a very risky thing. You will notice in reviewing historical charts that this almost always occurs in the direction of the predominant trend. A position trader who trades only with the trend and not against it will generally not have this kind of an issue to worry about.