4 ms·

There are circuit breakers operated by the exchange in case of significant and sustained orderbook imbalance (ie a stock is being hammered) These are today's o

There are circuit breakers operated by the exchange in case of significant and sustained orderbook imbalance (ie a stock is being hammered) These are today's on NASDAQ http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader.aspx?id=TradeHalts http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader.aspx?id=TradeHalts

conistonwater 10y ago
That page lists the reasons as T1 (halt pending release of material news), and T2 (halt while news is being disseminated). So then it's not a circuit breaker (T5?)? I wonder how exactly that works. What kind of news does it apply to? Is it common? Can a company ask for a trading halt on its own before it releases bad results?
- maruamx 10y ago
  My understanding was that the markets have a duty to provide equal access to information that would determine your decisions. This is one of the reasons why companies often release their quarterly results after market close. It allows all relevant parties to be able to access the latest information before selling resumes. If this wasn't the case, then users with the fastest connections would be able to process, and react to the data before others in the market had a chance to do so as well.
  - narkee 10y ago
    Wait, isn't that the entire point of high-frequency trading and their low-latency access to markets?
    - lmm 10y ago
      Sure - market-makers need to react quickly. But that's only during the hours when the market is open. If there's no market, no-one needs to be quick about it.
    - harmegido 10y ago
      1) HFT is more than just US equities. Many exchanges are open 23 hours a day. 2) Many HFT firms do not specialize in 'news-reading'. That is, they will sit out periods when an expected announcement is coming. You can observe this by looking at the liquidity of a product just prior to an expected relevant news release - there will be very few orders. 3) There are more events than just news events that require speed.
cmdrfred 10y ago
I never knew this. Have you ever noticed when you look deeper at any system created and run by people who claim to love the free market, it is loaded with anti free market regulation? Who is the stock exchange to tell me I can't sell my asset?
- wayn3 10y ago
  you can't sell your assets on the exchange through a broker because you're a small chump. you can sell your assets outside the marketplace just fine. if they just allow orderbooks to get skewed more and more in one direction you just run head first into a potential macro crash and sometimes thats just a little more important than you wanting to unload your 60 bucks of stock. And I'm pretty sure there's government regulation requiring them to do this.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Oh, so only small time investors and not large ones can't sell their stock? That sounds worse, not better. >And I'm pretty sure there's government regulation requiring them to do this. And who runs the government, empirically speaking? "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...
    - wayn3 10y ago
      yes, you can sell your shares through other channels. everyone can do that. you can take your 30 shares of random company x to your mom and sign a contract with her buying the shares. anyone can do that. stock exchanges are private businesses with private rules about who can and can not use their servers. they're open from 9:30 to 5. if you want to buy during other hours, you better find someone to buy from. as far as the "look people are evil here's ONE ARTICLE of evidence" paradigm goes - its a bit lame. for further reading, google selection bias. if you read my post, i'm not saying that this is good or bad. its just fact. forex goes down during all news. doesnt mean that big banks cant trade with each other during news. doesn't mean that you can't walk into a commercial bank at noon and buy some currency. it just means that one exchange doesn't want your business during news because they'll potentially enter significant counterparty risk. they just exercise their right of refusing to do business with you. doesn't matter that its automated through software. if I know for a fact I don't want to buy from door to door salesmen at 5am and turn my doorbell off during the night, its conceptually the same thing. you cant have it both ways. you can't only have "capitalism" when its good for you. you're either free to enter contracts or you're not. and in case that's somehow not clear: stock exchanges are private for-profit companies. they're not institutions bound to some weird codified public goodwill. whether thats a good or bad thing is for you to decide.

conistonwater 10y ago

That page lists the reasons as T1 (halt pending release of material news), and T2 (halt while news is being disseminated). So then it's not a circuit breaker (T5?)? I wonder how exactly that works. What kind of news does it apply to? Is it common? Can a company ask for a trading halt on its own before it releases bad results?

maruamx 10y ago
My understanding was that the markets have a duty to provide equal access to information that would determine your decisions. This is one of the reasons why companies often release their quarterly results after market close. It allows all relevant parties to be able to access the latest information before selling resumes. If this wasn't the case, then users with the fastest connections would be able to process, and react to the data before others in the market had a chance to do so as well.
- narkee 10y ago
  Wait, isn't that the entire point of high-frequency trading and their low-latency access to markets?
  - lmm 10y ago
    Sure - market-makers need to react quickly. But that's only during the hours when the market is open. If there's no market, no-one needs to be quick about it.
  - harmegido 10y ago
    1) HFT is more than just US equities. Many exchanges are open 23 hours a day. 2) Many HFT firms do not specialize in 'news-reading'. That is, they will sit out periods when an expected announcement is coming. You can observe this by looking at the liquidity of a product just prior to an expected relevant news release - there will be very few orders. 3) There are more events than just news events that require speed.

cmdrfred 10y ago

I never knew this. Have you ever noticed when you look deeper at any system created and run by people who claim to love the free market, it is loaded with anti free market regulation? Who is the stock exchange to tell me I can't sell my asset?

wayn3 10y ago
you can't sell your assets on the exchange through a broker because you're a small chump. you can sell your assets outside the marketplace just fine. if they just allow orderbooks to get skewed more and more in one direction you just run head first into a potential macro crash and sometimes thats just a little more important than you wanting to unload your 60 bucks of stock. And I'm pretty sure there's government regulation requiring them to do this.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Oh, so only small time investors and not large ones can't sell their stock? That sounds worse, not better. >And I'm pretty sure there's government regulation requiring them to do this. And who runs the government, empirically speaking? "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...
  - wayn3 10y ago
    yes, you can sell your shares through other channels. everyone can do that. you can take your 30 shares of random company x to your mom and sign a contract with her buying the shares. anyone can do that. stock exchanges are private businesses with private rules about who can and can not use their servers. they're open from 9:30 to 5. if you want to buy during other hours, you better find someone to buy from. as far as the "look people are evil here's ONE ARTICLE of evidence" paradigm goes - its a bit lame. for further reading, google selection bias. if you read my post, i'm not saying that this is good or bad. its just fact. forex goes down during all news. doesnt mean that big banks cant trade with each other during news. doesn't mean that you can't walk into a commercial bank at noon and buy some currency. it just means that one exchange doesn't want your business during news because they'll potentially enter significant counterparty risk. they just exercise their right of refusing to do business with you. doesn't matter that its automated through software. if I know for a fact I don't want to buy from door to door salesmen at 5am and turn my doorbell off during the night, its conceptually the same thing. you cant have it both ways. you can't only have "capitalism" when its good for you. you're either free to enter contracts or you're not. and in case that's somehow not clear: stock exchanges are private for-profit companies. they're not institutions bound to some weird codified public goodwill. whether thats a good or bad thing is for you to decide.