This is solely a problem for Instinet. Don't forget guys and girls that ETG is a CUSTOMER of Instinet. Gr8trade is a product owned by Instinet and it was one of their big customer's blunder. While we are on the subject of software, I am a retail customer of ETG. (Yes, ETG did pick up a few of us when they bought Protrader). I happen to use Gr8trade and like the product. From what I understand not everyone is happy with Gr8trade at ETG. Soon, we will have a choice of platforms such as InstaQuote, REDI, or Gr8trade.
"We do know that it was involved in the order entry process for some of today's trades having to do with COCO," Goldman said in an interview. "There were customers using Gr8Trade as an order entry for shares of COCO. We are reviewing those trades to determine what happened."... Goldman declined to say what portion of the sell orders were generated through Gr8Trade, whose customers are mainly electronic day-trading firms. "We don't know whether it was exclusively Gr8Trade." Leave it to the media to spin things in this fashion. Based on Mr. Goldman's commments, a few 100 lots transacted on Gr8Trade would make his comments truthful. Interesting that he "declined to say what portion of the sell orders were generated through Gr8Trade". Who could he be protecting? If this had been the fault of retail or prop traders, does anyone believe that nasdaq would have broken these trades? Nevertheless, the faithful mention that Gr8trade's "customers are mainly electronic day-trading firms". Clearly, the party that made the error was a major player. However, I am not clear why an order tracked down to Instinet would have been displayed on btrd.
I heard an order was placed from gr8trade on a "smart" cycle and it kept looping around and going into gr8trades's btrd direct line multiplying the shares something to about 2,000,000 shares. From a 2000 share sell.
Todasy NYT has a story on this. Computer Mishap Sends a Stock on a Wild Ride http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/business/06place.html The problem appears to have begun with an order to sell that was entered into a system that Gr8Trade, a subsidiary of Instinet Group, leases to brokerage firms. The system allows a firm's customers to enter their orders directly into the system, and sends them to markets for execution. "There was some sort of system glitch," said Andrew Goldman, executive vice president of Instinet Group. "We are trying to figure out precisely what it was and who caused it. It appears that the result was an unintended effect on the stock in question." Other market officials said that the sell order apparently went into an electronic loop, endlessly repeating. Then automatic systems sprayed those orders throughout the market.
This comment from the NYT article sez it all: "Some exchange officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had little sympathy for traders who bought stock at the low prices, and then lost money when they sold the stock before learning that the earlier trade was being canceled. "They should have known that was too good to be true," one said.." Who are they to judge what is/is not "too good to be true"???