fat finger trading---A legendary trading trick primarily designed to test the waters on
a particular asset on the market, or so the story goes, by placing a sell order
and tacking too many zeros on the end, appearing that a trader hit the wrong
keys, and then cancelling the order almost immediately, causing errors on the
counts of the number of shares available, and consequently, causing errors on
the price. Some say traders do occasionally make mistakes and others say even
the algorithms may not do things exactly right either because time is a hard
thing to line-up exactly right all across the globe...need an infinite amount of
computer space to do it. Perhaps an algorithm that re-adds the number of shares
available occasionally would be in order. Please see Flash Crash.
a particular asset on the market, or so the story goes, by placing a sell order
and tacking too many zeros on the end, appearing that a trader hit the wrong
keys, and then cancelling the order almost immediately, causing errors on the
counts of the number of shares available, and consequently, causing errors on
the price. Some say traders do occasionally make mistakes and others say even
the algorithms may not do things exactly right either because time is a hard
thing to line-up exactly right all across the globe...need an infinite amount of
computer space to do it. Perhaps an algorithm that re-adds the number of shares
available occasionally would be in order. Please see Flash Crash.