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 (http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=trb) Co. said a glitch that temporarily crushed UAL (http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=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 (http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=goog) 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: