A year of software testing appears wasted as ‘upgrade’ shutters Australian stock exchange on its debut
- Reference: 1605590946
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/17/asx_outage/
- Source link:
A [1]statement [PDF] said a shutdown of the exchange was needed because: "A software issue limited to the trading of multiple securities in a single order (combination trading) created inaccurate market data.”
Software problems happen all the time. But stock exchanges are expected to operate reliably and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) had prepared for this particular day for a year, because it was the production debut of a new software release for its equity trading platform.
“ASX, our technology provider Nasdaq, customers and independent specialist third parties conducted extensive testing for over a year, including four dress rehearsals, in preparation for today’s go-live,” the bourse’s statement says.
One of the world's most prominent distributed ledger projects has been pushed back by a year [2]READ MORE
Yet all that testing did not catch the flaw.
Complicating matters further, the ASX recommends combination trading as a risk-reduction option.
“An Equity Combination Order removes the execution risk associated with working the individual legs of multi-legged orders,” says [3]this ASX brochure [PDF]. “As a result Equity Combination Orders are particularly useful for arbitrage, stock conversions, pairs trading or any other combination where a net price outcome is desired.”
The ASX promised the fix would only take a day and was true to its word, as it resumed trading on Tuesday and even hit a new 100-day high.
Its CEO Dominic Stevens apologised for "the disruption caused to investors, customers and other market users." "The outage falls short of the high standards we set ourselves and the standards others expect of us," he added.
"Notwithstanding the extensive testing and rehearsals, and the involvement of our technology provider, ASX accepts responsibility," he said, adding that the Exchange remains "determined to continue our program of contemporising ASX’s technology stack from top to bottom."
Which needs doing because the bourse still runs Itanium silicon for core trading applications that are being replaced by a distributed ledger. ®
Get our [4]Tech Resources
[1] https://www2.asx.com.au/content/dam/asx/about/media-releases/2020/message-from-asx-about-asx-trade-outage-16-november-2020.pdf
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/asx_chess_distributed_ledger_delayed/
[3] https://www.asx.com.au/documents/products/Equity_Combination_Order.pdf
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
That's not bad.
They seemed to do it all by the book.
Extensive testing, pulled it when it had issues, fixed in a day.
Done.
I've done major switchovers and they are never fun, there is always that random thing you can never plan for. We always had to fix on the fly though, but we weren't dealing with billions of dollars an hour.
The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Software problems happen all the time. But stock exchanges are expected to operate reliably ....
Yes, there's the sub-prime problem highlighted there immediately, .... operating reliably and operating logically are not the same, and computer software is not very good at doing anything illogically ?
You do realise stock markets are rigged and chock full of zombie operations, yes, and they keep a whole raft of chancers living the life of Riley at the expense of reality on the wealth of others????
That probably accounts for its addictive attraction ..... a lot of something for practically nothing.
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
"They keep a whole raft of chancers living the life of Riley at the expense of reality on the wealth of others????"
Able to explain the above as it doesn't make any sense?
Ok... I thought not.
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Your talking to our resident bot.
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Interesting. Are you speaking with direct knowledge? Or are you someone not living the life of Riley, who is just jealous?
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Interesting. Are you speaking with direct knowledge? Or are you someone not living the life of Riley, who is just jealous? ..... Anonymous Coward
Yes and No are correct possible answers there, AC, and therefore most probably honestly truthful too.
There should be no ambiguity resting there. Any doubts surfacing would be wholly in residence with your good self/selves.
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Just remember that raft of chancers is ensuring you have a pension when you retire.
Re: The Core Catastrophic Vulnerability
Just remember that raft of chancers is ensuring you have a pension when you retire. ..... druck
Oh please ...... who on Earth told you that, and how well do you think it is presently going?
Many would say, and I might concur and concede that they are certainly trying to ensure they retire with a fabulous pension, and who wouldn't if they were able and/or enabled, eh? 'Tis surely a dream come true and much to be appreciated. Quite what happens to anyone else is way beyond their command and control and for them to think otherwise is probably delusional.
Wait. What!
Someone is using Itanium?
Best laid plans
The testing missed some real world event. It happens and fixed in a day. Pretty good really, and it's not as if it was a plane.