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To: Alex who wrote (49355)	2/19/2000 4:22:00 PM
From: Eashoa' M'sheekha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116753

Heavy trading knocks out exchanges Nasdaq, TSE affected Garry Marr and Peter Kuitenbrouwer National Post, with news services Unprecedented trading volumes knocked out services at key stock exchanges yesterday, as demand overpowered technology. The Nasdaq composite index, the leading indicator for high-flying technology stocks, was frozen for 2 1/2 hours due to a technical glitch. Without the key indicator, many investors were left clueless about the overall direction of the market. At the Toronto Stock Exchange, some member brokerage firms were left hanging when it came time to confirm their trades. "It's not an isolated incident, like other member firms, we're blind when that happens," said one senior trader at a Toronto brokerage house. Because of what the TSE said was heavy volumes, the Toronto broadcast feed was shut down for 10 minutes but up and running by 9:59 a.m. The TSE was able to process transactions, but was unable to confirm they had gone through and at what price. "What worries me is when the system goes down and I've got an order in, I've got no way of killing the order, if the market changes, other than making a phone call. I tried to call [yesterday] and the lines were jammed," said the trader. Steve Kee, manager of information services at the TSE, said the exchange's systems just couldn't handle the amount of information moving back and forth. On average, the TSE is processing 160,000 trades each day, which compares with about 60,000 trades for the same period a year earlier. "We are aware there is a performance issue here," said Mr. Kee, who couldn't say what the TSE is doing to correct the problem. It wasn't just exchanges. Charles Schwab Corp., the number one discount brokerage firm in the United States, saw its Web site coming crashing down early yesterday afternoon. The San Francisco-based broker was unable to process transactions over the Internet for 30 minutes. "We experienced a problem with our electronic channels," a Schwab spokesman said. "We switched over to a backup system, and some customers would have experienced a problem accessing our electronic systems when we made that transition." The shutdown was just the latest instance of discount brokers being unable to process transactions. This month, as Canadians make their registered retirement savings plan contributions, investors are facing extended waits to execute transactions. Two longtime stock traders in Toronto said the computer crashes are near-inevitable, given the astonishing crush of speculators who have swamped the stock market in the past few months. "I've seen a lot of speculation on the stock market in my day, but not to this extent," said Fred Ketchum, a senior trader at Scotia McLeod Inc. Mr. Ketchum noted that the Toronto Stock Exchange is still using the same CATS trading system computer that has been processing its trades since 1977. While the exchange has patched up and expanded its system over the years, he says they can be forgiven for not predicting the record-breaking 200,000 trades the exchange put through on Thursday. "The TSE has been subjected to a fair amount of criticism," Mr. Ketchum said. "But there was no way you could predict this kind of a rush to the volumes that we've seen." ( HOPE FREDDY IS STILL NOT PREDICTING THE STOCK MARKET TOO  ) Peter Beck, the president of Swift Trade Securities, a day trading company in Toronto that trades on the U.S. exchanges, said the problems with the Nasdaq mainframe meant his people had to work without "some very important information." Still, he said it did not slow his operations. "The problem at NASDAQ is that volume has been unbelievably high," Mr. Beck said. "They have never tested the systems to handle this kind of volume. Whenever you have such a complex network like this, no matter how much money and technical experts you throw at it, you're going to have problems." The Nasdaq shutdown was traced to a computer cable connected to a mainframe computer at the technical centre in Trumbull, Conn. Huh? I thought it was ? heavy trading ?. That was a connection trouble?IE: Physical ???.DUHHH!