Connectivity loss prevented floor trading at NYSE
Numerous sources report that due to a computer problem, traders were unable to trade more than 200 stocks at the NYSE on June 12. The outage lasted for 40 minutes and affected only floor trading.
One of the key computer servers used to conduct trading lost connectivity to the trading network between 11:30 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. ET. The outage affected 242 stocks, including such heavyweights as General Electric and ExxonMobil.
Trading in those shares was halted on the floor of the NYSE until a backup server was put in place, says NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia.
“It was a single server with a connectivity problem. It lost its connection to the network. It created an issue getting orders were they needed to go,” Pellecchia says.
Transactions could still be performed with the affected stocks, because electronic trading still worked. It clearly pays to have more than one method available to perform a task.
