Reply #7: Yes, it is all computerized. If it were manual, it wouldn't have happened so fast.

[Ruby the Liberal]

As far as unwinding. I'll use my example. I sold today at the $40 I mentioned, and the stock is now at $47. Whose responsibility is it to make me whole with 100 new shares?

That is the problem with system-wide risk blowing through so many stop loss orders. It wasn't just me and my trade, it was the guy who has a stop loss on my stock at $42, and they guy who had a buy in the system at $44 and the other guy who had a stop at $46 and the other guy who scheduled to buy at $47 - multiplied by the entire market. Once these sell stops and buy limits triggered, it was a bloodbath.

Normal trading on any given day is $200 million shares. Today was 450 million. There are people all over the country tonight logging into their accounts to see what they still own and what they don't.