Archive - Aug 22, 2013

Please standby...

Wondering why the ES is soaring? Because the NYSE just broke too.

• NASDAQ HAS DECLARED SELF HELP AGAINST NYSE ARCA (ARCA)
• NASDAQ DECLARES SELF HELP AGAINST NYSE ARCA AS/OF 15:26:42 E.T
• NYSE ARCA HAVING DIFFICULTY PROCESSING OUTBOUND TAPE C QUOTES

And BATS too:

• BATS HAS DECLARED SELF-HELP AGAINST ANOTHER MARKET CENTER
• BATS SAYS ROUTING TO NYSE ARCA HAS BEEN SUSPENDED AS OF 15:39

An absolute circus meant only to preserve confidence in a rigged, manipulated system based on incorrect electronic trades.

The Nasdaq was so desperate to rush and "fix" itself, somehow in the process it forgot all about the NBBO and that the bid has to be below the ask.

Markets are 'turmoiling'...but stocks are mostly opening green green green... even as bonds hit new high yields... The market mist be fixed though - AAPL is back above $500...

The war against privacy is ultimately being fought to make sure you don't keep anything hidden when the global government funding crises comes to a head.

Back on July 17, the New York Fed, which as always operates based on the decisions and inputs of its Primary Dealer superiors, asked the Dealer community for their thoughts on the Taper, specifically when and how much. The survey has come back and the PD community has spoken. The answer: Taper is announced, and begins, September with the first reduction in monthly purchases of $15 billion ($10Bn cut in TSY purchases, $5BN cut in MBS), eventually tapering to nothing in June 2014 when the Dealers believe QE formally ends.

Spoke to Tim. Planning dinner in September. Tim believes in buyback and is doing one. What will be discussed is magnitude.

— Carl Icahn (@Carl_C_Icahn) August 22, 2013

NASDAQ intends to re-open trading in all Tape C securities with a 15-minute quote only period. All stale quotes have been cleared from the UTP SIP at this time and halts have been disseminated with a reason code of T6. NASDAQ will first re-open trading in symbols ZVZZT and AAIT with a 15-minute quoting period beginning at 14:30, with trading beginning at approximately 14:45. All other securities will then be released at 14:55 with a 15-minute quote only period with trading resuming at approximately 15:10. NASDAQ will not be cancelling open orders on the book prior to a re-open. Customers who wish to cancel their orders may do so and any customer who wishes to not participate in the re-opening should cancel their orders prior to the resumption of trading.

The entire Bloomberg news feed has been overtaken with "Regulatory Halt - Extraordinary Market" messages for the last few minutes... it would seem agood time to drop that 'lowered outlook' PR or invade Syria?

The world of Industrial Design is often useful to assess everything from the Federal Reserve's current monetary policy to equity market structure (particularly timely given today's total SNAFU) to the timeless debate over the real value of gold.  As ConvergEx's Nick Colas reminds, good design is innovative, useful, aesthetically pleasing, honest and durable, whether those attributes relate to a new electronic gadget or any 'Product' in the world of high finance or economics.  Examples of "Good design" include stocks, bonds, and options – all simple, durable constructs.  "Bad design" would be the Fed’s "Taper" and current equity market structure.

While we somewhat ironically tweeted of the possibility that AAPL breaking back below the mythical $500 level was indeed responsible for the NASDAQ breaking...

Ok, who sold AAPL and broke the NASDAQ?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 22, 2013

Well a glance at the following charts shows from Nanex that may well have been the case as the chaos in the market during that time was extreme to say the least...

With US equity market trading basically halted, the world has turned to Chicago and is 'hedging' stocks. Bonds are also being sold with 5Y having just hit 1.70%.

First it was BATS self-helping against NYSE Arca, now it's Nasdaq's turn to break. Joking aside, AAPL dipped below $500 literally minutes before the NASDAQ broke. We joked earlier when we said any selling is enough to break the market. Now, we are not so sure...

THE RESULTS OF THE 5-YEAR NOTE AUCTION COULD RESULT IN THE UNSCHEDULED REOPENING OF THE 7-YEAR NOTES OF SERIES P-2018 (CUSIP NO. 912828RE2)

If the auction of the 5-year Treasury notes to be held Wednesday, August 28, 2013, results in a high yield in a range of 1.500% through and including 1.624%, the 5-year notes will be considered an additional issue of the outstanding 1-1/2% 7-year notes of Series P-2018 (CUSIP No. 912828RE2) originally issued August 31, 2011. The additional issue of notes would have the same CUSIP number as the outstanding notes, which are currently outstanding in the amount of $29,886 million. If the auction results in the issuance of an additional amount of the outstanding 7-year notes rather than a new 5-year note, it will be indicated in the Treasury's auction results press release and by a special announcement. Any net long position reporting in this auction should be in regard to the 5-year notes.

Ever heard of BOSS? Didn’t think so. BOSS stands for Biometric Optical Surveillance System, and it is a crowd-scanning program that has been in development by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for almost three years now. Did you catch that? This is the DHS, the ridiculously dangerous, cancerous, gargantuan waste of money our “leaders” foolishly created after 9/11 to prevent “terrorism.” Whereas in the beginning most people actually believed the DHS was there to stop cave dwellers with terroristic tendencies, it is now completely clear that its primary mission is to protect the oligarchs and political criminals from domestic dissent.