News yesterday that Radioshack was planning to seek new debt financing in order to give suppliers more confidence - which in itself is kind of ironic that suppliers would find an even-more-levered company a better credit risk - sent the stock spiking higher by 10% in mere seconds as the machines took the headline and ran with it. Sanity was restored moments later as the stock hit the exchange limits and was instantly reverted back to unchanged. While the firm faces its own fireworks over employees punching customers "for being sarcastic," the stunning charts below show the real fireworks that the machines started...
Via Nanex,
5 seconds of trading in Radio Shack (RSH) on October 3, 2013
This is when the price exploded 9.99% higher on heavy volume - the new Limit Up/Limit Down (LULD) circuit breakers prevented it from going higher. The price dropped below where it started about 20 seconds later. LULD has legitimized sudden stock moves of 4.99% or 9.99% (larger stocks have the lower 5% limit).
The bottom box (SIP) shows the National Best Bid and Offer. Watch how much it changes in the blink of an eye.
Each box represents one exchange. The SIP (CQS in this case) is the box at 6 o'clock. It shows the National Best Bid/Offer. Watch how much it changes in a fraction of a second. The shapes represent quote changes which are the result of a change to the top of the book at each exchange. The time at the bottom of the screen is Eastern Time HH:MM:SS:mmm (mmm = millisecond). We slow time down so you can see what goes on at the millisecond level. A millisecond (ms) is 1/1000th of a second.
Note how every exchange must process every quote from the others -- for proper trade through price protection. This complex web of technology must run flawlessly every millisecond of the trading day, or arbitrage (HFT profit) opportunities will appear. It is easy for HFTs to cause delays in one or more of the connections between each exchange.
Via NJ.com, [4]
Sticks and stones may break your bones ... but sarcasm will apparently leave you bleeding.
Parsippany police say Sgt. Paul Schulze and Officers Peter Rizzolo and Christopher Cifaldi went to the Radio Shack on Route 46 to investigated a disturbance Friday night, when Rizzo met a man who was holding a bloody paper towel to his left eye.
The man told him a salesperson had punched him and run to the back of the store, police said in a news release.
Rizzolo asked the salesperson why he hit a customer, and was told "he was being sarcastic," police said.
Rizzolo placed the salesperson, Andre Santiago, 20, of Denville under arrest on a charge of assault, police said. Santiago was transported to Parsippany Police Headquarters, where he was processed before being released pending an appearance in court, police said.
The customer did not seek medical assistance at the time of the incident, police said.