Outage Halts PSE Trading
October 16, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
Traders on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange have been unable to go about business as usual because of a power outage, one that has halted trading on the floor since around 12:30 PM EDT. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange is an options exchange owned by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and its traders have been unable to operate for most of the day today due to what has been described as a “technical glitch.”
Nasdaq describes the glitch as a floorwide outage and has expressed its concern over the unfortunately-timed event, one that comes right as October options are expiring. Expiration events generally cause much larger trading volume because investors want to adjust their positions before the expiration date.
Orders that have been sent to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange after the onset of the power outage have been rerouted to one of the six other exhanges that allow option trades. According to Nasdaq, a technical team has been looking into the problem and the company will keep customers informed of its progress in addressing the issue.
Image: Flickr
