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The Winners And Losers In Today's NEE And AEP Flash Crashes

Tyler Durden's picture




 

(Milli)seconds after today's market open, utilities NextEra Energy (NEE) and American Electric Power (AEP) did what most stocks in the New Normal do when there is an unexpected event (like a 4 sigma plunge in the Nikkei): they flash crashed.

What is different about AEP and NEE is that unlike most other daily stocks that implode in a matter of milliseconds, the collective market cap of the two companies was nearly $60 billion, which in turn sent the broader utilities index down over 10%. Of course, for a few milliseconds it was more like $30 billion: because that is how much in capitalization was lost in under one second, when today's flash crash du jour struck.

But fear not: anyone who got stopped out under $76.19 in NEE and under $46.03 in AEP are the "lucky" ones, and the trades were marked as "Aberrant." Alas since that simply means the trades are excluded from daily high and low charts, that is hardly comforting for anyone. 

In other words, the "unlucky ones" are, well, everyone, because no trades were actually DKed. So to all those who lost electronic money due to what was an electronic trading algo gone wrong, can submit an electronic complaint to the NYSE, which will be promptly ignored by an electronic email filter. In other news, investor confidence in electronic markets has never been higher.

NEE

AES

Courtesy of Nanex

 

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Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:09 | 3592912 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"It's just the cost of doing bidness." - Tony Soprano

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:10 | 3592923 Spider
Spider's picture

Just curious - can ridiculously low limit orders be hit by a flash crash?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:12 | 3592937 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Considering the nature of flash crashes.........please define "ridiculously low".

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:15 | 3592942 Spider
Spider's picture

Lol - lets say $1. I know i'm leaving 99 pennies on the table but i'm feeling generous

If thats the case I think its about time to play the 1000 limit $1 orders game with midcap companies...

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:18 | 3592961 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I assume anything is not only possible but probable in Bizzaro land.

The question is always will you be able to escape with your fat gains? And what will you do if you can't?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:30 | 3592978 gmrpeabody
gmrpeabody's picture

It's simple really..., if you're in the right club, you keep the gains.

If not, the tansaction will be cancelled.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:31 | 3593001 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Maybe Bart can help those poor new castrati.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:13 | 3592940 ghengis86
ghengis86's picture

Yes, but they'll reversed...right?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:16 | 3592956 Hmm...
Hmm...'s picture

only if you're somebody important.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:24 | 3592977 EscapeKey
EscapeKey's picture

anyone who got stopped out under $76.19 in NEE and under $46.03 in AEP are the lucky ones

Yeah, I figured "someone important" had stop loss orders placed at $76 and $46. JPM or GS, probably.

Or Corzine, perhaps?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:08 | 3592913 Two Theives and...
Two Theives and a Liar's picture

No Worries...I shorted these two losers and placed my winnings into Bitcoin....oh...wait.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:25 | 3592982 EscapeKey
EscapeKey's picture

Bitcoin has been fairly stable around $120 as of late. Which is more than can be said about NEE, AEP, and all the other companies which have been the targets of renegade algorithms.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 21:48 | 3594407 TraderTimm
TraderTimm's picture

The cool part is this happened right after the 2011 decline too - before it started another push higher. There will probably be a few of these cycles as more investment occurs and adoption increases.

Fri, 05/24/2013 - 15:47 | 3596785 TraderTimm
TraderTimm's picture

Oh look - Bitcoin just traded at 133.37 or "L33T". How amusing.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:08 | 3592919 Tinky
Tinky's picture

Could you connect me with your supervisor?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:10 | 3592922 Fuku Ben
Fuku Ben's picture

Flash crashes are the new norm

Just like regular false flag T attacks

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:41 | 3593043 Joe Davola
Joe Davola's picture

So it was a false flag that lowered my T, not middle age.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:11 | 3592927 JJ McApe
JJ McApe's picture

hands up - this is a robbery

lol

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:11 | 3592928 dbTX
dbTX's picture

Kill the HFT's...NOW

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:15 | 3592949 Hmm...
Hmm...'s picture

I don't believe this happened.

I just looked on Marketwatch and even CNBC and it didn't say a thing about it.  if it happened, I'm sure they'd report it. 

Besides, who buys multi billion dollar utilities any more?  who needs utilities?

Just buy Facebook.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:26 | 3592986 EscapeKey
EscapeKey's picture

Why would CNBC report bad news?

They're a fucking infomercial channel. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:15 | 3592951 101 years and c...
101 years and counting's picture

flash crashes and tornadoes (HAARP) repeatedly ripping the same town apart are the new normal.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:16 | 3592953 Flakmeister
Flakmeister's picture

I was very pleased to find that somehow I had picked up 100 XOM shares for $76.58 at the open today... I hope the trade stands.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:15 | 3592954 Racer
Racer's picture

As long as the Sh1t and P!$$ closes green nothing else matters

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:17 | 3592960 Smuckers
Smuckers's picture

It's all fun and games until...., well, ah....it's all fun and games.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:20 | 3592962 pashley1411
pashley1411's picture

Ya shoulda played with house money;

call "1 800 heM FBen", for your free unrestricted zero interest money line. 

Government policy in the new normal; put the word "bank" in your company name, heads you win; tails, US dollar holders lose.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:20 | 3592964 The Heart
The Heart's picture

Ain't no bout a dout it, there are going to be a lot more losers than winners after the crash.

Here is a big loser and hopefully, the beginning of the euro house cleaning. The house cleaning in the USA seems to have hit a stop after everyone forgot about the hugely insane cover up of the boston drill event, the Benghazi cover up, and now seem to be stuck in the endless cycles of the minor distractions. Oh how nice it would be to see real justice jail these criminals. Maybe this is the first of a long line to be prosecuted?

French minister says IMF boss Christine Lagarde 'must resign' if she is charged in connection with £270million fraud and embezzlement scam:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329449/French-minister-says-IMF...

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:22 | 3592972 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

flash crashes are the new bail ins. It's all the rage.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:28 | 3592993 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

When you file taxes, doesn't a group called the IRS get a list of your holdings?  Wonder if they are targeting people for flash crashes?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:23 | 3592975 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

AES isn't AEP

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:30 | 3592997 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

Spock: Fascinating, Captain: they've created criminal machines to rob each other.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:29 | 3593000 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

and yet again "market architecture" cries out for more liquidity....more liquidity. hmmm. "the only liquidity we offer is the possibility of greater economic growth going forward." so yet again "Wall Street has to figure that one out too." can someone say "normalize (interest rates) now"? if this follows the "20 years ago" Japanese script then obviously the only thing rallying over the long haul here is the dollar and treasuries.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:40 | 3593037 IamtheREALmario
IamtheREALmario's picture

The bad side of guaranteed infinite market liquidity is that it distorts pricing. If there is ever a hint of real free market pricing and artificial bigs get pulled, these flash crashes happen.

The only way to fix it is to make illiquidity normal, so that free markets determine price, not computers.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 15:55 | 3593391 ToNYC
ToNYC's picture

HFT 3-Card monte in your face. I use limit orders $10 bucks under thinly traded stocks and front-run their ass.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 16:01 | 3593422 titty sprinkles
titty sprinkles's picture

Pardon my ignorance, but why doesn't this show up in the drill down to daily performance charts for AEP on CNBC?  Where else besides Nanex can this be seen?

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 16:04 | 3593431 titty sprinkles
titty sprinkles's picture

Nevermind, I believe I found it.

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 16:15 | 3593480 Dr_Lucid
Dr_Lucid's picture

Half of the retired population in Florida crapped their depends on this one. 

Its ok to flash crash a high flyer, but once you start messing with utilities like AEP you are playing with ancient money.  If any were left in the market with their "safe" utilities this just killed it once and for all. 

Thu, 05/23/2013 - 17:46 | 3593798 Lendo
Lendo's picture

HFT clusterfuck 

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