NASDAQ GLITCH CAUSES INVESTORS STRESS

Via LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Confusion erupted on Wall Street on the evening of Monday, July 3rd.  It appeared Amazon’s stock dropped more than $800 in after-hours trading while several others showed dramatic gains or losses.

It appears everything is back to normal, but Los Angeles CBS2 journalist, Andrea Fujii, reports, that many people were surprised to see the wild fluctuations.

Google, Yahoo! Finance and Bloomberg were some of the sites that showed the changes.

Apple appeared to be down 14 percent, Google down 86 percent and Microsoft up 79 percent — all were trading at $123.47.

Nasdaq says it was a mistake that occurred due to the misuse of test data sent out to different sites. But for a while, investors on Twitter were concerned.

Kevin Lane tweeted, “Something is wrong with a Nasdaq aggregator and now all your stocks are worth 123.47.”

Dan Goldie wrote, “Go home Nasdaq, you’re drunk.”

David Rae, President of DRM Wealth Management, says it’s not uncommon for computer glitches to happen; he warns investors not to act impulsively.

“If you see a bunch of prices of major companies all the same exact price to the penny, something is probably wrong,” he said.

“Don’t freak out,” he advised. “If you get something that doesn’t sound right just take a deep breath. Don’t go sell anything. If you hear Apple has tanked 75 percent something has probably gone wrong.”

Nasdaq says they are investigating what happened.

Prices on the actual Nasdaq site were not affected and no actual trades were completed at those incorrect prices.

Lessons from this Nasdaq Issue:

-Avoid making financial decisions based on headlines

-Don’t freak out when the stock market gets volatile.  Stock Market Risk and Volatility are not the same things.

–Holidays are your friend, take a break from staring at your investing apps.

Throwback Video: Remember When The Dow Jones (DJIA) Closed At 24000

Live for Today, Plan for Tomorrow.

DAVID RAE, CFP®, AIF® is a Los Angeles-based financial planner with DRM Wealth Management, a regular contributor to Advocate Magazine, Huffington Post and Investopedia.  Along with numerous TV appearances, David was named by Investopedia as one of the “100 Most Influential Financial Advisors” in the US. He helps smart people across the USA get on track for their financial goals.  For more information visit his website at Financial Life Planning Los Angeles by David Rae.

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