Options Market Suffers Biggest Disruption Since April
This article is for subscribers only.
When Scott Maidel of Russell Investments answered the phone 20 minutes after the start of U.S. equity trading on Aug. 20, there was a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employee on the line with a request: stop sending orders for stock options.
Confusion was sweeping trading desks as prices for equity derivatives swung without reason, leading to speculation a computer program had gone haywire at one of the 12 U.S. options exchanges. Contracts traded for $26 one minute and $1 the next.