9/11 Black Swan and effects in SNP and other futures

[Adamus]

Does anyone recall what happened to futures trading in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Twin Towers?

I'm planning to trade 24 futures markets, of which 75% were shut down by the event.

I assume that some of these were actually trading floors in the Twin Towers, so presumably trading was halted abruptly on the Tuesday morning when the aeroplanes hit. Is that correct?

I'm using end-of-day data, so I don't have any tick data to check what trades occurred on the 11th.

Many of my markets which were shut on the 12th were Chicago markets - was a holiday declared? I don't remember.

If anyone knows of a book, a documentary or report which covered this, I'd appreciate the reference.

I'm looking at the money management aspect of my trading system and currently I'm using the biggest gap between Close and next day Open as my 'worst case scenario' for risk exposure, and I'm thinking of adding some kind of multiplier to it.

The worst affected seem to be the S&P which opened down 3000 dollars per contract 3 days later, and Gold, which opened up 650 dollars per contract.

PS had a look at the earliest messages on the forum here and it was strangely devoid of comment about the event - although it did look like the whole website had only just begun at that point.

 

[ian]

I recall sitting watching the event unfold on tv with cnbc and my laptop in front of me with various futures markets showing on the screen. There was a stall in the ftse and dax futures as I saw it ( everyone trying to take in what was happening) the dow futures were up approx 50 points at that point - then all hell broke loose.

The indexes on my screen nosedived, the cnbc side bar showing the u.s. futures info flicked back and forth from positive to negative and then showed 'closed'.

The markets, u.s. now closed, went down all day as it became 'clearer' what was going on, however the following day the European indicies staged a comeback ( I think).

U.S. opened a week or so later to mucho volatility - understandably.

Does anyone recall what happened to futures trading in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Twin Towers?

I'm planning to trade 24 futures markets, of which 75% were shut down by the event.

I assume that some of these were actually trading floors in the Twin Towers, so presumably trading was halted abruptly on the Tuesday morning when the aeroplanes hit. Is that correct?

I'm using end-of-day data, so I don't have any tick data to check what trades occurred on the 11th.

Many of my markets which were shut on the 12th were Chicago markets - was a holiday declared? I don't remember.

If anyone knows of a book, a documentary or report which covered this, I'd appreciate the reference.

I'm looking at the money management aspect of my trading system and currently I'm using the biggest gap between Close and next day Open as my 'worst case scenario' for risk exposure, and I'm thinking of adding some kind of multiplier to it.

The worst affected seem to be the S&P which opened down 3000 dollars per contract 3 days later, and Gold, which opened up 650 dollars per contract.

PS had a look at the earliest messages on the forum here and it was strangely devoid of comment about the event - although it did look like the whole website had only just begun at that point.

 

[Splitlink]

Does anyone recall what happened to futures trading in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of the Twin Towers?

I'm planning to trade 24 futures markets, of which 75% were shut down by the event.

I assume that some of these were actually trading floors in the Twin Towers, so presumably trading was halted abruptly on the Tuesday morning when the aeroplanes hit. Is that correct?

I'm using end-of-day data, so I don't have any tick data to check what trades occurred on the 11th.

Many of my markets which were shut on the 12th were Chicago markets - was a holiday declared? I don't remember.

If anyone knows of a book, a documentary or report which covered this, I'd appreciate the reference.

I'm looking at the money management aspect of my trading system and currently I'm using the biggest gap between Close and next day Open as my 'worst case scenario' for risk exposure, and I'm thinking of adding some kind of multiplier to it.

The worst affected seem to be the S&P which opened down 3000 dollars per contract 3 days later, and Gold, which opened up 650 dollars per contract.

PS had a look at the earliest messages on the forum here and it was strangely devoid of comment about the event - although it did look like the whole website had only just begun at that point.

I can remember being short! Not trying to be a bighead---I was long in the crash of '87!

Must be improving with age.

What I wanted to know was --what year was it?

Split

 

[Adamus]

I can remember being short! Not trying to be a bighead---I was long in the crash of '87!

That must have hurt.

edit: did you manage to close out OK once you decided to exit?

What I wanted to know was --what year was it?

what do you mean?

 

[Splitlink]

That must have hurt.

edit: did you manage to close out OK once you decided to exit?



what do you mean?

There was no internet, then. Telephone trading. Try to get a broker to pick up a phone in a panic!

"2001 or 2002? I've forgotten.

Split

 

[Lee Shepherd]

There was no internet, then. Telephone trading. Try to get a broker to pick up a phone in a panic!

"2001 or 2002? I've forgotten.

Split

Finspreads spread betting platform was online in 1999

 

[Splitlink]

I meant the 1987 crash.

 

[Adamus]

It's good to see someone around on the forum who traded in 1987 - I'm just as interested by the events of 1987 as I am by 9/11.

Before your exit trade got filled in 1987, how far did the market fall from the price where you decided to get out?

 

[Splitlink]

I suppose that, having been a small participant of such an important event, I should have kept records, but I am afraid that it is all water under the bridge, now. I do remember, though, the frustration of trying to get my broker to pick up the phone on Monday morning. It was compounded by a hurricane that slowed people up on getting to work. At least, that was one excuse that I got.

Let that be a lesson to you all, as it was to me. The market was bouncing up when they decided that it was time to start picking up cheap shares.

Suffice to say that I survived. But never believe that spreadbetters are worse than the brokers when there is a panic.

I, also, had an account with a broker that got hammered. Getting that money out was a difficult process, too. In the end, another broker got it transferred over to my account with him.

 

[Adamus]

Some excuse!

 

[gooseman]

that's what happened-that was the famous Michael Fish-I can assure you there will not be a hurricane. Sevenoaks become just Oak and Renee from Allo Allo got a billboard lodged in his napper. From what I know the City was deserted that morning.

 

[Adamus]

The big storm of '87 wasn't the weekend before Black Monday though, was it?