The New York Stock Exchange broke trades in Anadarko Petroluem Corp. executed at or below $87.56 in the final minute of today’s session.
The transactions drove Anadarko down as much as 99 percent to 1 cent in the final second of trading, theoretically wiping out almost its entire $45 billion in market value. The stock recovered and ended the session at $90.03, up 2.5 percent on the day. Trades at $87.56 were 0.3 percent lower than the stock’s closing price yesterday and 2.7 percent below its close today. NYSE Breaks Trades That Sent Anadarko Petroleum Shares Down 99% - Bloomberg
The New York Stock Exchange on Friday canceled rogue Anadarko Petroleum Corp.APC +91.54% stock trades in the last second of the trading day that took the stock to from $90 to one cent in some trades.
Data on FactSet Research also showed erratic moves in the last hour of trading, with at least one bringing the price under $20 a share. But the sudden drop to near zero occurred in the final second of trading, FactSet showed. Shares of Anadarko ended Friday 2.2% higher at $90.03. The company deferred comment to the NYSE.
The stock exchange initiated a “clearly erroneous execution review,” which it defines as “an execution with an obvious error in any term, such as price, number of shares or other unit of trading, or identification of the security,” and eventually canceled all trades executed at or below $87.56 a share in that last second.
“The NYSE has determined to cancel all trades in Anadarko Petroleum Corp, executed at or below $87.56 between 15:59:59 and 16:00:00 today,” the exchange said in a statement. It said the decision wasn’t subject to appeal.
Exchanges regularly review such rogue trades and eventually cancel most, if not all, of them. “Broken trades,” however, have started to gather more attention — and concern — after the May 2010 “flash crash” highlighted weaknesses in trading systems stretched to the max by high-frequency and other specialized trading programs.
