Single Web Hit Led to UAL Glitch

[tsptalk]

Single Web Hit Led to UAL Glitch, Tribune Says

By SHIRA OVIDE
September 12, 2008; Page B4

Tribune Co. said a glitch that temporarily crushed UAL Corp. shares Monday was caused by a single Web hit on an old story on one of its newspaper's Web sites.

Tribune on Wednesday blamed Google Inc.'s automated news collection for misreading the archived story about UAL's 2002 bankruptcy-court filing as fresh news.

Tribune's explanation is a further effort to shift blame for the recirculation of the story, which sparked a chain of events that shaved off about three-quarters of UAL's market value in 15 minutes of trading.

More ... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109238502221651.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

[luv2read]

Ah...the wonders of the modern world! Ain't the Internet wonderful? Thanks Al!

 

[Bullitt]

What a gaggle. This proves that the more you know, the less you really know. Are the institutions who use trading programs really gaining much more of an advantage than anyone else?

 

[Silverbird]

"And this button [on the computer] will multiply the error by 10(to the 100th power) times!" -- Comic in Scientific America, before the internet. I guess it perpetrates the error by 10(100th power) now, too. :laugh: