• one A bunch of sell
  requests went in
  all at once. These trades were made automatically using computers.
• two The older New York
  Stock Exchange’s
  circuit breaker went
  off – an automated
  attempt to cool off
  the market.
• three The computers
  didn’t understand
  this, and totally
  freaked out
  because of the
  lack of buyers.
• four The stock market
  “flash crash” sped
  up. In other words,
  one system didn’t
  understand the
  other. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink