They probably saw the deluge of arbitration requests that brokers are getting over the CHF debacle, some of which I've seen encouraged here, and decided the best way to avoid being accused of ignoring a stop loss is to eliminate it.
Yeah, it could be a move to get liability away from NYSE in such a case where there are blown stops. ^
i am the whole issue is a moot issue because most orders are not routed to the nyse but are internalized.
This makes no sense, period. 1) If I can't sell at a reasonable price using a "protective" stop order, what guarantees that I would get a better fill sending the order manually? 2) Who but daytraders, who are glued to their monitor all day, has the means to send the order?
GTC and stop orders are a pain for the exchanges to manage and exposes them to risk of making errors in the management of them. When stocks split or pay dividend they must adjust the price and quantity or the brokers must do so. Order types like these are best provided by your ISV on a server anyway.