Earlier this week, the New York Stock Exchange halted trading for nearly four hours due to a technical “glitch”. While the shutdown caused a lot of uncertainty among investors and ruffled some feathers on Wall Street, there are some important takeaways for securities practitioners.
This was a reminder of the importance of data security. The NYSE is one of the most secure systems on the planet, yet is still obviously susceptible to technical problems. While there is still no clear explanation on what caused the glitch (a software update rolled out the day before is currently taking the blame), this should serve as a wake-up call that you can never be too confident in your data systems, and should be on guard for these types of technical issues, with an action plan should something like this happen to you.
Going forward, it will be interesting to see if regulators get more involved on the technical side of trading. Certainly, Wednesday’s NYSE glitch caused issues for traders, which are certainly the types of issues that regulators hope to avoid. Keep a close watch for any policy revisions or increased oversight in the wake of this week’s trading halt on the NYSE, as they are likely to follow.
