Very weird activity has happened at the NYSE today.
It started not long before 10:00 AM, when people noticed some very volatile action in a select list of stocks. Volume was ginormous.
Right off the bat, people suspect some kind of algorithmic trading fiasco.
Word quickly spread through the trading community that the issues were centered around Knight Capital, a market maker.
Shares of Knight Capital, the market maker, immediately got slammed. They're down nearly 11% now 24%!. People think the technical issues are originating from them.
You could easily see the stocks taking weird, glitchy swings.
Via trader and twitter Echo Mike, check out this big, inexplicable drop in Netsuite (6%).
Via Yahoo Finance.
UPDATE:
CNBC is reporting that Knight Capital is not commenting, but that traders are all still pointing at Knight Capital.
UPDATE II:
NANEX has sent us this fantastic chart, which shows the bid and the ask in one stock (a utilities ETF), and how at first the bid/ask are tight, but then just before 10:00 AM went totally wild.
UPDATE III:
From Doug Kass, click here to see a big list of stocks whose volume has gone stratospheric.
UPDATE IV:
The NYSE is apparently reviewing trades in 148 securities between 9:30 and 10:15. This was reported by Bloomberg TV's Josh Lipton and confirmed by Business Insider.
UPDATE V:
According to Bloomberg, Knight Capital has now told clients to trade elsewhere, seemingly confirming that there's a problem there.
UPDATE VI:
The NYSE has officially announced the names of the 148 companies that were, including Alcoa, GM, and Bank of America.
UPDATE VII:
Knight just released a statement about the issues to Business Insider, here it is:
"An initial review by Knight indicates that a technology issue occurred in the company’s market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE. Knight notified its market-making clients this morning to route listed orders away. The company’s OTC securities and trading in its other businesses are not affected. The company continues to review internally."
UPDATE VIII:
Sources within the NYSE tell Business Insider that its systems are functioning normally and that the Retail Liquidity Program, which launched today, is also running as expected.
UPDATE IX:
The NYSE has just issued a statement to Business Insider, here it is (emphasis added):
"The NYSE and NYSE MKT are currently reviewing irregular trading identified by our people and systems in 148 (140 NYSE/8 MKT) symbols between 09:30:00 a.m. and 10:15:00 a.m. ET today. The NYSE and NYSE MKT will provide updates with respect to these reviews. At this time, we believe NYSE systems and circuit breakers operated normally during this period, and we are working with all market participants on the issue."
