Tuesday Aug 6, 2024
Amid 5 M shares trading daily, Schwab, Fidelity and others experienced 'outages'
Understand this is occuring when the markets are near all time highs, at this point there is no panic. What happens if volume swells to three or four times that level?
In the 1970s, computers were not what they are now. Ten million shares traded on a day was typical day, now daily volume is over a billion shares.
Back then the solution was to have two shortened trading days a week, trying to 'catch jup' with the volume. The chaos was so difficult that a new acronym was born, DK.
DK stood for don't know. This meant the exchange could not match up buyer and seller for particular trades.
Transferring shares from one firm to another was like watching a glacial action, it was near impossible.
the take away here is, be sure you are on the long term side of the action. If you cannot place a trade be glad you are with the trend. Years ago Wells Wilder observed that the safest best was with trend. Should it reverse short term, in the long term it would bail you out.
A headline assures readers that 'economists' say it is not time to panic.' I don't know that I ever saw a headline saying Economists suggest panic is now the best option. The article neglects to mention who employs all these 'economists.' No doubt big banks, brokerages, and the government, all of who have an interest in everyone staying invested.
The new trend is now down. Remember that in placing trades.
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