One the biggest brokers in US equity markets was reeling -yesterday after Knight Capital Group revealed a $440m pre-tax loss from erroneous trading positions triggered by a software glitch that led to huge price swings in dozens of stocks.
Shares in the brokerage and electronic market-maker plunged 53.3 per cent to $3.25 by mid-morning yesterday in New York, having fallen more than 32 per cent a day earlier.
The technical error at Knight caused the New York Stock Exchange to place 148 stocks under review on Wednesday after many of them fluctuated widely during the first 45 minutes of trading. The exchange later cancelled trades in six of the stocks.