Comedy gold: Stock market “webinar” freaks out during Wall Street crash
posted at 4:46 pm on May 7, 2010 by Allahpundit
Via Breitbart, this is the sound my heart made yesterday at around 2:45. It’s also the closest we’ll ever get to a new Chris Farley sketch. Seriously, close your eyes and tell me it doesn’t sound at certain points like ol’ Matt Foley watching the market implode on a ticker in his van down by the river.
For the record, yesterday’s Dow Jones bungee jump was apparently not the result of “fat finger” error so much as program trading gone wild. That’s … good, I guess?
Blowback
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Mord on May 7, 2010 at 4:48 PM
Investigation under way on what went wrond in Chicago yesterday. I’d like to know soon.
It sure wasn’t the quoted “fat finger” of billions versus millions.
Traders all have individual limitations and surely none can trade billions. That was bogus from the get go.
What’s up in Chicago is the BIG question.
Schadenfreude on May 7, 2010 at 4:49 PM
Taking lessions from him you’re bound to be a successful trader. /
Those who can’t teach; those who can vacation in the South of France.
TimTebowSavesAmerica on May 7, 2010 at 4:50 PM
woops sorry it works after reloading the page.
Lol, funny guy.
Mord on May 7, 2010 at 4:50 PM
Is that Joe Biden?
reppac122 on May 7, 2010 at 4:53 PM
CANCEL ALL ORDERS !!!
CANCEL ALL ORDERS !!!
BowHuntingTexas on May 7, 2010 at 4:54 PM
So is he upset or happy about what’s going on?
I really can’t tell.
catmman on May 7, 2010 at 4:54 PM
I like how the dude keeps saying “We told you!”…
JetBoy on May 7, 2010 at 4:55 PM
LOL, what a frickin’ character. I was working on a trading desk for an investment bank during the ’87 crash. Now THAT was exciting. What happened Wednesday is not all that unusual.
Django on May 7, 2010 at 4:56 PM
RE:Fat fingered blunder.
CNBC had an interview with the head guy for NASDAQ who was (is) complaining that NYSE stopped trading and that lack of buying support cause the electronic trading to fall faster.
When the guy was asked if this wasn’t an indicator of the danger of high frequency electronic trading the guy then makes the claim that human intervention can over ride the electronic system and slow it down or stop it. Exactly the very thing the NYSE did and the NASDAQ guy was complaining about 30 seconds earlier.
Cognitive dissonance in a multi million dollar salary guy and a trillion dollar business CEO. Awesome, and I’m justa dumb retired truck driver.
Skandia Recluse on May 7, 2010 at 4:57 PM
I’m sorry, I was distracted by an idiot yelling at me to “cancel all orders” over and over again.
amerpundit on May 7, 2010 at 4:58 PM
Chicago should have been investigated BEFORE we got the Carny in Chief.
This time, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow(pie) torched the entire country.
It’s a little late to close that barn door.
NoDonkey on May 7, 2010 at 4:58 PM
SELL, MORTIMER SELLLL!!
Fletch54 on May 7, 2010 at 4:59 PM
Just think if you had invested you last dime with this level headed guy…
… I’m sure you would be sleeping pretty well at night.
/
Seven Percent Solution on May 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM
ROFL!
JetBoy on May 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM
Actually it reminded me of Walter Sobchak more than Matt Foley. “This is what happens…!!!”
It's Vintage, Duh on May 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM
I’m no broker but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, yesterday set the new low to be tested next week.
jukin on May 7, 2010 at 5:01 PM
Comedy
GoldPlatinumBrat on May 7, 2010 at 5:02 PM
I was thinking a weird crazy hybrid of Chris Farley and Gilbert Gotfried. Eck.
tickleddragon on May 7, 2010 at 5:02 PM
BRILLIANT! LOL
Midas on May 7, 2010 at 5:03 PM
TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON! TURN THOSE MACHINES BACK ON!!!
teke184 on May 7, 2010 at 5:05 PM
Seven Percent Solution on May 7, 2010 at 5:08 PM
via TryTheWine: http://twitter.com/TryTheWine/status/13525595227
golfballs03 on May 7, 2010 at 5:09 PM
Is that Scott Ferrell?
JammieWearingFool on May 7, 2010 at 5:10 PM
Is that Wolfman Jack?
Geronimo on May 7, 2010 at 5:11 PM
Yesterday I was expecting the Dow to wind up living in a van down by the river.
Holger on May 7, 2010 at 5:12 PM
I’ve been having network problems all day, so I pity these guys
cntrlfrk on May 7, 2010 at 5:16 PM
ROFL
shick on May 7, 2010 at 5:17 PM
Investigation under way on what went wrond in Chicago yesterday. I’d like to know soon.
It sure wasn’t the quoted “fat finger” of billions versus millions.
Traders all have individual limitations and surely none can trade billions. That was bogus from the get go.
What’s up in Chicago is the BIG question.
Schadenfreude on May 7, 2010 at 4:49 PM
In Chicago really? With “financial Reform” the Ones new mantra and Rhammy’s “never waste a crisis” that there’s a near crisis created in by someone in Chicago, you don’t say?
This could get really interesting, do you have a link?
Archimedes on May 7, 2010 at 5:20 PM
Imagine if you knew a precipitous drop was going to occur but only for a short time. Now imagine you bought at the bottom.
Did anybody make a ton of money yesterday, buying at the exact right time?
WitchDoctor on May 7, 2010 at 5:20 PM
I haven’t read anything at all on this story yet, but putting on my Obama tie for a moment, it seems to me that it’s good that it wasn’t an error because it means the bottom really did fall out of the market. Whether it was due to program selling or not is only a manner of explaining the speed at which it occurred.
And it’s good, because otherwise it means that an lot of people didn’t lose gobs of money due to some mysterious persons typo. That would undermine confidence in the market itself, I’d think.
FloatingRock on May 7, 2010 at 5:22 PM
5 whole dollars, maybe I’ll go to the movies…alone
Bob
Bobnormal on May 7, 2010 at 5:22 PM
LOL……and like that, new internet meme is born.
The Ugly American on May 7, 2010 at 5:23 PM
If the feds were allowed to run the stock market, this wouldn’t have happened.
Nationalize the stock market NOW!
Bishop on May 7, 2010 at 5:23 PM
OMG, that is hysterical. I wonder what this guy looks like…
Emily M. on May 7, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Dumb question:
Suppose I own a boatload of P&G (on 5/6)and I have a stop loss in place for say, 5%. This precipitous fall happens…so an automatic sell is triggered. Are my losses truly limited to 5%??
Second stupid question: Same scenario, only I own a mutual fund which has P&G as part of the portfolio (I still have the stop loss in place)? Since mutual fund redemptions are based on the closing price, I’ve never understood how you can have stop-loss orders on mutual funds, but someone told me they have SLOs on all of their fund holdings.
Neither of these situations is anything other than hypothetical btw, I’m just curious.
Chewy the Lab on May 7, 2010 at 5:23 PM
Thread winner.
The Ugly American on May 7, 2010 at 5:24 PM
Comedy gold is right. This guy should be on a street corner shouting “REPENT, THE END IS NEAR!!!” Can’t wait for 2012 when ALL the crazies will be making this cry.
docdave on May 7, 2010 at 5:25 PM
Your loss would be limited to 5% or within a few points due a FSTMKT rule. In a FSTMKT it is understood that the broker can only get the trade done so fast in those conditions.
Archimedes on May 7, 2010 at 5:27 PM
You’ve seen that cartoon where Goofy, a normal, friendly everyday family cartoon dog with a briefcase turns into a demon when he gets behind the wheel of his car? It’s just like that, I think. Chances are he’s an average looking guy.
FloatingRock on May 7, 2010 at 5:30 PM
It has nothing to do with computer errors or fat fingers. The market wanted to go down for a long time and yesterday it found a reason.
jdun on May 7, 2010 at 5:32 PM
Thanks!
S, um who eats the difference? Or maybe I’m asking the wrong question: Who is going to be the buyer of my shares, if the price drops 20% in a matter of less than a minute?
I’m sure this is a super dumb question, and I am only showing my ignorance…but….
Chewy the Lab on May 7, 2010 at 5:33 PM
That’s Myron Cope come back from the dead! Big Ben’s hijinx made him roll over, this CAPITULATION brought him back from the dead.
GoodSamaritan on May 7, 2010 at 5:34 PM
Chewy the Lab,
There needs to be a buyer in order for you to sell your shares. For the market to work there must be someone to BID (buy) and someone to ASK (sell).
If there is no buyer then your share will not be sold until there is one and the Bid price might be lower than you are Asking.
jdun on May 7, 2010 at 5:39 PM
If there is no bid like yesterday the computer will sell your share when a bid comes up. In other words your stop loss is 5% but in a few second there was no bid and it drop to 10%. The computer will sell your share at 10%.
jdun on May 7, 2010 at 5:43 PM
…the hell?
Ha, that sums it up perfectly!
Heresy of Cain on May 7, 2010 at 5:43 PM
So what was the guy saying when the market turned around?
Skandia Recluse on May 7, 2010 at 5:43 PM
Sounded a little like Walter Sobchak in Big Lebowski.
“Is this you homework, Larry? You see what happens Larry? You see what happens when you try to #$%# a stranger in the #$@? This is what happens. You see what happens Larry?…..”
stldave on May 7, 2010 at 5:52 PM
A combination of Farley and Rush, actually.
Y-not on May 7, 2010 at 5:53 PM
Me? I think the market manipulation came with the super quick climb back. The fed has trillions unaccounted for. There is no reason for the market to be at the levels it is at….other than fed intervention. Same prices as October 08 with 1/2 the revenue/profit.
jukin on May 7, 2010 at 5:54 PM
Fat finger triggered the program trades.
The market’s still down because it has caused a minor bear market. We’ll see how long it lasts.
blink on May 7, 2010 at 5:59 PM
And…you know…people buying stocks.
blink on May 7, 2010 at 5:59 PM
The most interesting part of this is that the guy was screaming for everyone to cancel all their orders while the market was down 1000 points.
In other words, he told them NOT to buy at the bottom. He hurt their chances to make big money.
blink on May 7, 2010 at 6:00 PM
I’m pretty sure capitulations, like the way this fella is thinking about don’t happen near the beginning of a bear market, nor after a few days of selling after more than a year of basically an up market. No, any selling climax, or capitulation, occurs after months and months of relentless selling.
Oh…and chewy the lab, your sale would depend on if you had a stop market or a stop limit order. A stop market order would have gone to market as your specified price was triggered. Where that order was eventually filled is unknowable, but in yesterdays action, it would have more than likely be below your triggered price. If you had a stop limit order, that would have resulted in you having an asking price for your shares. Under the limit scenario, prices may have been moving down so swiftly, that your sell order would be higher than current prices, and you would still be left holding them.
rslancer14 on May 7, 2010 at 6:06 PM
The only capitulations for the last 12 months or so is the bears. There was no bears left to stop the fall. This is the end result of what happen when everybody is bull in the market.
jdun on May 7, 2010 at 6:09 PM
Reminds me of this guy
William Amos on May 7, 2010 at 6:21 PM
Ditto.
Heh. Seriously. Just think, w/o the internets we’d never know about this guy.
di butler on May 7, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Where’s Beeks???????
NC Hoov on May 7, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Who made the big money yesterday…
nondhimmie on May 7, 2010 at 7:07 PM
Why were you staring at Soros when you said that?
SagebrushPuppet on May 7, 2010 at 7:11 PM
The audio from that clip is begging for a Downfall mashup.
pedestrian on May 7, 2010 at 7:16 PM
LOL.
watson007 on May 7, 2010 at 8:29 PM
My NYSE buddy told me it was systems errors.There was a big Buy/Sell imbalance on P&G, market makers stopped trading for 90 seconds, then when they reopened, systems executed trades errantly, including trades in which Proctor and Gamble shares traded hands for $0.01.
And they are still sorting it out. They need to “bust” those errant trades but that means sticking people for selling stock they didn’t own; computers bought stock at 1 cent, then sold for $25, but the 1 cent buy gets busted, and the $25 sale stands, but market price og P&G is much higher… Messed up.
SlimyBill on May 7, 2010 at 11:06 PM
Sounds like the Simpsons Scientist freaking out. lOL~
Inanemergencydial on May 7, 2010 at 11:16 PM
Hmmm.
Ok I canceled my pizza order.
Now f-ing what? What the heck am I supposed to have for dinner?
memomachine on May 8, 2010 at 2:23 AM
LMAO.
Jaibones on May 8, 2010 at 7:19 AM
The “guns, ammo, water and canned food” crowd must have been in the pickup and heading for the gas station to top off. Heh.
Jaibones on May 8, 2010 at 7:20 AM
Gilbert Gottfried delivers financial commentary in a heated moment of down-market transactions. OY VEY!
ExpressoBold on May 8, 2010 at 9:30 AM
That should be Republican’s Motto for November, against democraps “CANCEL ALL ORDERS!!!”
eaglewingz08 on May 8, 2010 at 10:02 AM
I was working at Drexel, Burnham, Lambert for their programming division. You’re right. THAT was almost comedy gold. The running back and forth, the sweat and panic. Yep.
Mommynator on May 8, 2010 at 10:41 AM
What a gullible beltway hack you are.
Yeah, Thurs. was a regular laugh riot. The Bankstas reminding CONgress who’s boss is always a wild ride.
Rae on May 8, 2010 at 11:46 AM