almost certainly untrue story of the day
May. 6th, 2010 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutR. tells me that someone screwed up and typed billion with a b when they meant million with an m when typing in a sale and the resulting trade screwed up the market. Given all the other stuff going on (like, Greece) that could have screwed up the market, this just sounds way too urban legend-y to me. Here's the coverage that started the tale on its rounds, at least for us unconnected peons:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/36999483
There's no indication even CNBC believes the story, and they include multiple alternative explanations and several named sources saying we're looking into the P&G drop and the overall market drop, which one came first etc.
I just have trouble with the idea that the number of units in a trade might be entered as a word, rather than as a number. *shrug* I didn't see any other complaints about that, so maybe I'm just imagining a word of interfaces that is different from what traders really use. But geez, how innumerate are they, if they need to use words instead of digits?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/36999483
There's no indication even CNBC believes the story, and they include multiple alternative explanations and several named sources saying we're looking into the P&G drop and the overall market drop, which one came first etc.
I just have trouble with the idea that the number of units in a trade might be entered as a word, rather than as a number. *shrug* I didn't see any other complaints about that, so maybe I'm just imagining a word of interfaces that is different from what traders really use. But geez, how innumerate are they, if they need to use words instead of digits?