Stock exchange's backup: Twitter, Facebook

September 30, 2012

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has said that it plans to use Twitter and Facebook for finding buyers and sellers to close daily trading, following a technical glitch that saw its usual method of e-mail fail. At the end of trading last week an e-mail notification was meant to alert investors to a stock with an outsize number of unfilled buy orders, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, this e-mail was delayed by seven minutes. Such delays at close could have caused the stock to leap higher or drop lower than its final trading level. This led to NYSE sending traders a notification on Thursday, which said that if e-mail alerts fail again it will use social media distribution channels to help address buy and sell imbalances. The move reflects a growing trend where traditional exchanges are being forced to embrace digital technologies. NYSE recently announced Jon Robson, a former Thomson Rueters chief, as its new head of NYSE Technologies. The position had been left vacant since Stanley Young left NYSE for a role at Bloomberg In May.

Link: http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3401078/nyse-will-use-twitter-facebook-if-email-fails/