Island Inventor Josh Levine Says Backups Not Enough in Equities
This article is for subscribers only.
Systems such as stock markets should be designed to avoid “single points of failure,” though doing so is getting harder, according to Josh Levine, who invented the technology that underlies Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.’s exchanges.
The Nasdaq Stock Market halted trading in shares it lists for three hours yesterday after connectivity was disrupted between its data processor and NYSE Arca, where about 11 percent of American share volume occurs. The breakdown spurred Nasdaq to freeze thousands of stocks from Apple Inc. to Facebook Inc. that trade on about 50 markets from Kansas to New Jersey.