Mass sell offs tend to create unorderly markets, which is not beneficial for anyone.
The concept was introduced in US equities after the ‘87 crash, but was only consistently implemented for NYSE-listed stocks. In ‘13 these were made consistent and market wide (thus MWCB), set against a widely published value of the S&P (so that the control was predictable; thus how it executed today).
FYI, there are also bidirectional halts that exist intraday (Limit-Up/Limit-Down) that serve a similar purpose and control rapid, uncontrolled movements in individual stocks. These are also defined in exchange regulation and are well defined so that they are predictable.
Pareto efficiency does not apply, because it is a theoretical construct that assumes perfectly rational actors. It's useful for thinking about the market, but not an actual law.
Exactly, and when you have an unorderly market, price discovery becomes problematic.
It’s the same reason the single stock LULD bands exist (which put the brakes on both rapid downward and rapid upward movement). Stopping for 15 minutes (or 5 in the case of a LULD pause) is not detrimental to the process of establishing orderly price discovery.
In the event a stock is going to keep rising or falling due to legitimate changes in valuation it will continue to do so (look at NASDAQ’s halts page today to see stocks that have hit their bands multiple times).
Really it's just saying "the market is now closed". But you can still sell those securities on other markets or direct to someone who wants to buy or sell.
Having worked for one of the (smaller) big firms, and had a chance to watch from the sidelines and seen how days like this work: No, these circuit breakers don't screw the regular guys. They discourage the regular guys from screwing themselves.
There are a lot of firms whose core business strategy is to keep a level head and take advantage of people who panic and (over)react on days like this. They get damn rich doing it, too.
> They discourage the regular guys from screwing themselves.
If you're a little guy who believes that, say, 2019ncov is about to tear the world a new asshole, that's probably a decision you'd like to make for yourself.
I don't doubt what you're saying, but it's a matter of perspective. Sometimes the "panic" is the correct reaction. We're sitting on top of a perfect storm which is shaping up to be a massive potential black swan. And with the current circuit breakers, trading is only interrupted for something similar in concept to "the 99%".
Across all indicators, too! Oil price, US markets, international markets, t-notes, gold price, and a bunch I'm probably not aware of because I'm not a professional investor. China just shut it's economy down for two weeks. Long term outlook is rightfully poor.
Panic is almost never the correct reaction. Deciding that there's going to be a downturn and you should prepare yourself for it financially is one thing, but under what circumstances would it be optimal for you as an individual to panic-sell?
In my mind, panic is the thing you do when you realize that you haven't prepared. That you don't have enough resources for an extended downturn, that you're financially over-leveraged, and that you are in danger of losing your home and being unable to feed yourself and your family. There are TONS of people who are experiencing this right now in China and Italy, and many others of us who will be experiencing it the next few weeks in the rest of the world.
But panic also implies that you don't have time to fix that, and there's nothing you can do as an individual to change it. If that's the case, you probably don't have a lot of investments in the stock market anyway. Or if you do, and you're over-leveraged in the markets because you were gambling with your money instead of investing with it, then yes, you're panic-selling right now.
Panic sell is the correct thing when your doctor gives you a short time to live. Since your money will be worthless no matter what happens you may as well get it all now and spend it on whatever can buy a moment happiness.
There is an exception if your religion lets you take your stock with you. I don't believe in one, but I guess if you want to.
But that exactly is one of those fallacies. If 2019ncov "tears the world a new ..." then your shares are going to be worth about the same as bills in your hand: nothing. Nobody will seriously risk their health for money.
And what's the rational thing to do in such a case? Let's say you're at a poker game. And you have a deal: you lose, you get shot, you win, you get your winnings. What is the rational thing to do?
You should go all-in. It is one of the very few cases it is actually rational to do that.
The idea that the little guys largely have a chance actively trading in a fast moving market like today’s where they are gonna be crushed by algos is ridiculous to begin with.
If anything this is helps the little guy, by not completely crushing their stock value, and hurts the big guys who can outlast huge swings (something little guys cannot).
Market makers are buying - their job is to always buy or sell stock from everybody. They (generally computers, but humans traditionally) will always buy your stocks, or sell you stocks. Their algorithm is simple: buy for $.10 (or some other tiny number) less than you sell - if the amount of stock owned is too low raise the price, if the amount is too much lower the price. They pretty much always make money in the long run.
For agreeing to do this (and having the capital to do it) the Market Maker for a stock typically secures certain benefits from the market in respect of that stock.
For a very popular stock on a typical day the market maker isn't really necessary. Your trades would absolutely execute immediately based on positions other people wanted.
When your stock is more thinly traded, or when things are a bit frantic the market maker is your saviour. When everybody and their dog is selling, the market maker will buy anyway.
Under some circumstances market makers can signal they intended to cease to make a market for specific stocks. When the market makers exit, all hobbyists should make sure they are gone too. Once there is no market maker for the stock you're holding, you will need somebody else to actually take the other side of your trades. "Prices" without a market maker are just a guess, there may be nobody actually promising to take your stock at any price, even if the last trade was for $1.40 your stock might be not sell even at 14¢. This makes for an exciting space in which to gamble with money you can afford to lose if you really know what you're doing, otherwise it's just a way to throw money away.
Nice point about only 2 daily. But still seems crazy.