In what seems to be contagious, FINRA halted all equity stock trading.
Today, FINRA halted all trading in OTC equity securities:
On Thursday, November 7, 2013, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”) halted trading in all OTC Equity Securities pursuant to FINRA Rule 6440(a)(3). FINRA determined to impose a temporary halt because of a lack of current quotation information. Therefore, FINRA has determined that halting quoting and trading in all OTC Equity Securities is appropriate to protect investors and ensure a fair and orderly marketplace. The trading and quotation halt began on Thursday, November 7, 2013, at 11:25:00 a.m. E.T. FINRA will notify the market when trading may resume.
The trading halt was lifted mid-afternoon.
This comes after:
- A freeze of the Nasdaq Composite Index earlier last week
- A halt in options trading on Nasdaq Options Market last week
- A three hour shutdown of Nasdaq in late August
- The infamous Nasdaq / Facebook debacle last year
No wonder people went nuts over the smooth execution of today’s Twitter IPO.