The Dark Knight Falls

[Berlum]

In light of the tragic aura surrounding the opening of The Dark Knight Rises movie about Batman, I am struck by this story in today's The New York Times about another Knight -- and the precipitous crash and burn that comes from embracing "Republican Family Values" (greed).

Yet another ugly, self-induced whack to the kneecap of THE SYSTEM.


Trying to Be Nimble, Knight Capital Stumbles

"Knight Capital, in a bid to keep a grip on customers, rushed to introduce a new system that would position it competitively. But in the rollout of the system that morning, Knight created a blizzard of erroneous orders to buy shares of major stocks. The orders caused wild swings that affected the shares of more than 100 companies, including Ford Motor, RadioShack and American Airlines.

"While the companies quickly recovered, the 17-year-old Jersey City firm was left reeling. Knight will lose $440 million in selling all the stocks that it accidentally bought on Wednesday — more than its entire revenue in the second quarter of this year, when it brought in $289 million.

"On Thursday, rattled customers like Citigroup, Fidelity Investments and Vanguard took their business elsewhere. Knight shares plunged 63 percent, to $2.58. The fallout prompted the company to contact JPMorgan Chase and other big banks for emergency financing."

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/trying-to-be-nimble-knight-capital-stumbles/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120803

[JHB]

1. So which executive shithead(s) told the engineers that being first was more important than testing?

Wonder if they skimped on pay for the code writers, since they obviously skimped on QC.

[Zalatix]

4. What are the odds that the coders will get blamed for this?

[Berlum]

5. I'd bet a sack of apple cider doughnuts the exec is a Republican

[Renew Deal]

6. I'd take that bet

Just for the possibility to eat some apple cider donuts.

[JHB]

7. A worthy stake!

[Berlum]

8. All you need to do is ask. I'm a Dem, and happy to share the bounty

[davidpdx]

9. Damn those look yummy

Now I'm hungry. Does anyone know if they ship to South Korea? LOL

[Honeycombe8]

2. Someone needs to be fired and locked out permanently from that type of business. nt

[Monk06]

3. They need a cease trade order followed by delisting. Personally I think it's a cover for

some sort of short selling scam.

[DCKit]

10. Mittens was "retroactively" clearing out some old accounts. nt

[Berlum]

11. A final Friday KICK because...

...the whole KNIGHT syncrhonicity thingie kinda intrigues me....