For those asking about Dow "circuit breakers"

[villager]

This is from a CNBC article. Evidently, we're not even close:

"To put the Dow's decline in perspective, we're not even halfway to the first circuit-breaker trigger level announced by the NYSE last week. According to the fourth-quarter guidelines, an 1100-point drop in the Dow before 2 p.m. will halt trading for one hour, a 2200-point drop before 1 p.m. will stop trading for two hours, and a 3350-point drop will shut down trading for the rest of the day, regardless of what time it occurs.

"We'd actually like to see a little more panic," Cheslock said. "Then you get stocks that go down and bounce," enticing buyers, he said. "Eighteen percent might seem like a discount but when you don't get a bounce it's not. The stock could go down another 2 percent," he explained.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27051921

[Hydra]

1. Thanks

I seem to recall in the recent past(last 20 years or so) that they threshold was much lower- 500-700 or so.

[kestrel91316]

2. I think they go by percentage drop rather than numerical drop.

Makes a lot more sense when the Dow gets higher over the years.