A Drop in Google Shares Causes Chest Pain

Last week, a computer glitch by Nasdaq lead to a drop of $350 a share in Google stock value in just 10 minutes.

According to The New York Sun:

"At about the $391 price point, an order originated on Instinet-ATS (a Nasdaq company) that triggered trades between 4:10 p.m. and 4:12 p.m. at a price as low as $38 (representing a drop of almost $350 a share from the close). In brief, someone from a Nasdaq member firm punched in an erroneous figure to commence a trade.

An investor whose identity was not revealed, "bought 200 shares earlier last week at around $380, or about $76,000, only to discover from his broker he was suddenly sitting with a fast and damaging paper loss (at the quoted $38 a share) of about $68,400.

The broker told his customer the $38 price was probably a mistake, but he added that he could not guarantee it, given the volatility in Google's shares. Nonetheless, the customer, he said, became hysterical, complaining of chest pains and crying. "The way he sounded, I thought for sure the man was going to have a heart attack," he said."

Luckily, Nasdaq soon corrected the mistake. There was no word if this helped the chest pain of the "poor" investor.

References:
Error Knocks Down Google $350 a Share. The New York Sun.
Image source: Openclipart.org, public domain