, Columnist
How Computers Took Over Trading
When Wall Street traded humans for computers, companies thought they were eliminating errors not compounding them.Â
This article is for subscribers only.
The malfunctions that froze trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market for three hours this afternoon -- just two days after options markets were roiled by mistaken trades sent by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- are the latest in a series of high-profile mishaps most likely triggered by errant computer programs.
There is a perverse irony to these high-tech mishaps: When Wall Street originally embraced computers in the late 1960s, it did so in a desperate attempt to eliminate trading errors that had, by decade's end, grown so serious they would help destroy hundreds of companies.