Machines Talk and Machines Take action
Yesterdays spectacular 400+ point drop in Dow drop brought into sharp focus the role played by Computers in making decisions for us. As the index nose dived - Computers trades kicked in selling of security adding even more sell orders pushing the DOW down. In the M2M world as people jump ahead to make the transition to intelligent networks and decision making systems - Incidents like this serve as a reminder about teh complexity of this task. M2M products that bring on incremental integration with lower risk would be the ones most likely to succeed. The Dow’s decline accelerated throughout Tuesday, and stocks saw a huge dip in late afternoon trading as computer-driven sell programs kicked in, and also as a computer glitch caused a delay in the recording of a large number of trades. The Dow fell 546.20, or 4.3 percent, to 12,086.06 before recovering some ground in the last hour of trading to close down 416.02, or 3.29 percent, at 12,216.24, leaving it in negative territory for the year. Because the worst of the plunge took place after 2:30 p.m., the New York Stock Exchange’s trading limits, designed to halt such precipitous moves, were not activated.
Computer Glitch