Stocks with big price swings to face trading halt, report says

[The Straight Story]

Stocks with big price swings to face trading halt, report says

NEW YORK — U.S. stock exchanges would briefly halt trading of some stocks that have big prices swings under new trading rules aimed at avoiding market plunges, according to two people familiar with the plan.

The rules are set to begin in mid-June under a six-month pilot program agreed to by exchanges and regulators, the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not been made public.

An announcement could come Tuesday.

Under the plan, trading of any Standard & Poor's 500 stock that rises or falls 10% or more would be halted for five minutes. These rules, known as "circuit breakers," would be applied if the price swing occurs between 9:45 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. ET. That's almost the entire trading day.

The rules are intended to prevent a repeat of the May 6 market plunge in which the Dow Jones industrials fell to a loss of almost 1,000 points in less than 30 minutes. The pilot program is scheduled to end Dec. 10. Regulators and the exchanges would then decide whether to widen the program to include other stocks.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2010-05-18-freefall-changes_N.htm

[county worker]

1. I thought we already had a plunge protection team!

[uponit7771]

2. Why not just enact Glass Stegal and stop big banks from gambling with deposits and they don't

....have to worry about huge short positions