How much did traders or investors lose on that day? or did anyone blow out on the that day? it was like 1987, What happened to margin calls etc? What happened on may 6,2010 at 2:45 will be under investigation. what happened was close to robbery if exchange and brokers refuse to cancel trades and some traders or investors lost money.. i think what happened was technical issue and market just shut down and trading was like afterhours with no liquidity. in afterhours there are no bids. I suspect foul play. how can the trades be honored if the trading was not regular hours or normal market.
The Black Monday of 1987 was before my time, but I know that it went straight down all day and it closed at the low. It was not a 45-minute event where it shot back up and recovered 70% of its loss in the last 15 minutes. I've been trading since 1991 and this ain't natural. It simply doesn't add up. The "fat finger" bullshit is also ludicrous. How can multi-billion dollar firms and exchanges that spend unsightly amounts of money on technology become victim of such glitch?
'87 was a disaster day. 5/6 was a fluke. I can't recall the date, but sometime around 2 years ago, dow shot up 1000 points in last 10 minutes of trading...........
'87 was totally different. Our market was down 30% the week before the crash. It couldn't handle the imbalance of sell orders. The VIX skyrocketed to something like 150. B/A spreads were humongous. The sky WAS falling, worldwide.
Thursday's "fat finger" day reminds me more of February 27, 2007. I was watching that day also when the Dow dropped 500 points in the blink of an eye.
Funny you mention this. I thought it odd that my broker sends me a message 10 minutes before the selling hits, that they would temporarily raise the margin on my aud/usd position. I witnessed 1987 and it seems there were some warnings on the Thurs and Fri. prior to Black Monday. I have traded independently since 1996 and could not believe my eyes at the ferociousness of this move. I think there is a s#$tstorm lying out there somewhere and this time will involve the currency markets. JMO.
I think you may have gotten that margin call 10 minutes before the selling because the selling had started in the currency market before it hit the indices. Look at the EUR/YEN chart. I also agree with you that crap may soon hit the fan and it will include the currency markets big time. They probably see something coming down the pipe