Wow. That mistake they made in oil futures probably wiped out a few guys and made a few other guys a lot of money fading that. If the market volatility picks up over the next few weeks/months, expect to see a lot more of this kind of stuff to happen intraday.
The bad oil trade caused by the buggy program cost Infinium Capital Management more than the fine levied by CME Group. Fortunately the market usually punishes the people who put idiot, poorly tested programs online though unfortunately innocent people get hurt too.
good, we can all retire our back-tested algos... NOT! It's going to take algos just to fend off the bots with their flash crashes and mistakes. I'm seeing a massive power-shift toward algo trading. It's the rise of the Engineers!! All you introvert fund managers, you bagged a zillion $ from old ladies that worked their husbands to death and you pay yourself big bucks to NOT BEAT THE INDEXES!! Bend over biaaatches...
Good that they got fined. One thing the market definitely could use right now is a sense that there is stability in the system and the appropriate bodies are overseeing this properly.
I agree that they should be fined for putting that sort of rogue program online without adequate testing. Maybe next time the fine should be <i>bigger</i> than their market losses.
so its ok to manipulate the markets as long as you do it discreetly, pennies and nickles.. We dont want these big, clumsy algos running amok, but your bleed 'em a dime at a time (c) is good.