SEC Computer Called CAT Will Peer Into Dark Pools, Track Orders
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Around 2:30 p.m. on May 6, 2010, the U.S. stock market began to crash. It fell 600 points in five minutes, erasing about $800 billion in value. The market largely rebounded by day’s end, but investors were spooked.
It took the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission more than four months to piece together what had happened: A single trader’s order to unload $4 billion in futures contracts caused a price dip that set off a cascade of automated selling.