Technology & Innovation — May 7, 2010

Wall Street’s Swoon

If computerized trading is found to have accelerated yesterday’s trading carnage on Wall Street, it may spark demand for tighter regulation of high-speed trading.

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“Some of the carnage on Wall Street yesterday was apparently caused by technical errors. … If computerized trading is found to have accelerated the slump, this may strengthen demands for tighter regulation of high-speed trading. But to blame human error and algorithms entirely would be far too sanguine. The market was already falling when the freefall occurred.”

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