WTF Stories of the Week

[Moonliner]

WTF?

Apple shares dropped 9% today. With something like 20,000,000 shares outstanding that represents a loss of over a billion dollars. A billion dollars.

And why did this happen?

A single trade of 100 shares at a price of $542.80 hit the tape at 10:57 coming from the BATS Exchange. The previous trade seconds earlier was at a price of $598.26.

“It looks like a fat finger mistake,” said Joe Terranova, chief market strategist for Virtus Investment Partners.

A trade of 100 shares cost a billion dollar loss. How the F' could that happen? Stocks are nuts. Sure the stock recovered in fairly short order but still what a mess.