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Business Daily: Flash Crash: Could it Happen Again?

Traders

06/05/2015

Flash Crash: Could it Happen Again?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Flash Crash: Could it Happen Again?

It has been five years since a 'flash crash' caused a collapse in US financial markets

It has been five years since a 'flash crash' caused a collapse in financial markets. Do we know what really caused the crash and have the problems been fixed?

The man US authorities accuse of causing a massive collapse in financial markets five years ago is in court again in London for a bail hearing. But many in financial markets are asking how a single trader can wield so much power? Is it a case of regulators not keeping up with the rapidly evolving technology of automated and algorithmic trading? Or does the problem lie in the way financial markets work? We speak to professor Maureen O' Hara of Cornell University, who was on the 'flash crash' committee which looked at the events of five years ago. 

And, presenter Manuela Saragosa takes a crash course in trading with Piers Curran, head trader and managing director of Amplify Trading. What does it take to play the markets from your home computer?

(Photo: Traders on the New York Stock Exchange, Credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

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