World markets avoid Y2K digital meltdown

(Updates; adds details from U.S. Securities Industry Association news conference)

http://www.pbs.org/reuters/articles/Y2K2/01_01_2000.reulb-story-bcy2kmarkets3rdld.html

By Daniel Sternoff

NEW YORK, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Financial markets around the globe reported on Saturday their electronic trading systems had not succumbed to Y2K computer hitches or glitches on the first day of the millennium.

In industrialised and developing nations across the planet, stock and futures exchanges, securities dealers, banks, clearance houses, regulators, electronic data vendors and currency dealing systems said all systems were ``go'' for 2000.

But while markets were spared digital disaster on the first day of the year, securities industry officials warned the world would not return to capitalism as usual until the first trades of the millennium had been conducted, processed and settled.

``We're A-OK,'' said Don Kittell, executive vice president of the U.S.-based Securities Industry Association. ``But this is, in a way, early days for us...we have not yet traded anything in the year 2000.''

The world's largest markets open for business only on Monday or Tuesday after a long holiday weekend.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 02, 2000

Answers

Andy, you have been really busy tonight. Question for you. Am I correct in thinking that FOF, manual workarounds, setting the clock back on an LSES failure--all of the energy related/power related equipment will have to be fixed at some point? And fixing it after the rollover is akin to replacing a jet engine on an airplane in flight, i.e. much higher risk level. What about cascading faults during that fix period?

Call me crazy, but I sure would feel more comfortable if those fixes had been completed before the rollover.

I have no expertise in this field, just adding up A + B and getting to an uncomfortable C.

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), January 02, 2000.

Andy, Great post! This is the Numero Uno sector that can not/ will not be able to be faked or hidden. I'll have to DIG, but somewhere in a stack of Old G.North posts, Greenspan told Congress that anything less than 100% in financial sector will not be acceptable. He further went on to say that one of the worst things that could ever happen would be 97% fixed, and everyone thinks things are just fine. The sheer volume of trades will make degradation impossible to catch from its first appearance in the middle of a typical week oflets say international currency markets that do a Trillion a day in trades.

Here's something I'm watching: For over 12 years my own ammortization of my mortgage has been accurate down to the penny with my bank's records. I did mine on my cheapie calculator every year. Always, always accurate down to the penny. In mid-December, I made a series of calls, trying to track down a PERSON (i.e. humanoid being)locally that I could bring any problems to after Rollover. While I was at it, I asked for my current balance to verify. It was off by a "mere" $.02 in MY favor(not the bank's favor). Well, I requested this be noted on my account; then I explained my concerns to the local gal. I explained that one possible way data bases may degrade would be from pennies, to dimes,to dollars to ten dollars, etc. I also shared my 12+ year accurate track record in keeping my own records. SHE VOLUNTEERED to call HOME OFFICE (probably the one on THIS planet--lol.) and she got back with me about ten-fifteen minutes later. She thanked me several times, sounded abit different, and that was that. I will be paying Monday for January. I will call in 10-14 days and request balance. Should error be gone, I will not suspect problems. Should $.02 error cause another $.02 error I will not be alarmed. Anything else will alarm me.

Finally, I cannot fathom anyone being able to track down and correct errors that occur this week if multiple programs are not working properly, or the many "viruses" that are out there are triggered say like in mid-week.

The speed and volume made tracking errors pre-rollover tough enough when everything else provided dependable backdrop of stable/accurate records. Should things get screwed up and the markets are forced to cut back volume or close, it will be announced in very quick fashion. All that has to occur is multiple errors in multiple establishments, and the sheer volume will make righting the errors an impossible task.

Well, food for thought anyway, huh? Regards,

-- (He Who) Rolls with Punches (JoeZi@aol.com), January 02, 2000.