sababa, I had a similar situation occur a while back. The problem is that Globex doesn't take stop orders, only stop-limit orders for the e-minis. Stop orders are held in a separate server someplace and entered as market orders when your price is hit. I don't know what would have happened to your stop order, but from the sound of it, it probably wouldn't have gone through. What happened to me is that I tried to enter a stop order (through another broker) and it said the order was pending, but it never went through, because it was lost in cyberspace. When my stop price was hit, the order didn't get placed. I found out later that I could have entered a market order to exit the trade and the market order would have gone through. In order to avoid this problem, you either have to enter a stop-limit order or watch the trade and enter a market order. Otherwise you'll have to take your chances for the "convenience" of being able to use stop orders. BTW, you are responsible for any losses due to system malfunctions, per your account agreement.
It's a different world. Everyone's on the defensive. Maybe because everyone's suing everyone else for things like not telling them they might burn themselves on the hot coffee and stuff.
The reality of it is that with the substantial decreases in commissions in the last decade that the use of an error account is reserved for your best customers ...