who is liable for a loss due to a software problem ?

do you agree that chart/order entry program authors, brokers' usually only ? account
software, and data feed providers including exchanges are liable for any and all losses
that are a direct result of a problem with Their software ?

On the assumption that you've suffered a loss do to a perceived/actual fault, I suggest reading the smallprint if you haven't already, will probably inform you. If it doesn't, you may have a case.

Generally speaking claims for losses due to the use of software are generally limited to the cost of the software itself.

the thread comes from one where a trader lost 10 NQ points due to a disconnection
issue with the AMP/NinjaTrader/CQG setup
NT had been alarming a disconnection that reconnected within one second and was
repeating every half hour or so
the loser's claim is that AMP is liable for his loss because AMP knew about the
problem prior to the trade and should have notified clinets about the problem

at the time of posting I was thinking it wasn't AMP that was liable but CQG since
it was their problem, fixed after last weekend, now however and I also experienced
the dis-reconnect I'm thinking 'why was he trading because he 'must' have had one or
more disconnects before he entered the trade'

I wasn't and didn't intend trading and didn't pay much attention to the disconnects
because they were so brief. the trader seems to be the only one who had a loss
that he at least and NT believes is related to CQG but CQG hasn't responded
publicly to the fault

I think the guy's got a point about not being notified, that pisses me off when my
ISP goes down, is it temporary or what ? they used to email when they were going
to do an occassional service, now they appear to put a message on the phone
system that you hear first once connected, so that helps
a message from the broker could go through NT, but why didn't NT send a message
in the first place, the problem had been going on for a few days prior to the trade
and lasted a week in total
CQG 'are' to blame - they were going to 'do a fix', but, doesn't the trader only have
himself to blame 'knowing' there was a disconnect problem but going ahead and
trading anyway

If the trader knew there was a problem and traded anyway he's not going to win much sympathy from anyone. Did he forget to put stops in? If so, then poor trading also won't get him very far in trying to get some reimbursement. There's still some blame on the broker's part too but as Hotch said, the fine print probably takes care of that.

Peter

It's happened to me a few times. I used to use eSignal for market data + charts and order entry was done via Interactive Brokers' TWS. Often, I would notice a delay in changes of the bid/ask in eSignal and these changes were happening in "real-time" in TWS. As I was watching the level 2 screen on eSignal, I would get filled at prices that were different to where I saw on eSignal, but they were matching the prices on TWS. So, often, when exiting a trade for a small loss, the loss would be unexpectedly large due to eSignal's problems. This was never a problem a couple of years ago, however, it got worse over the last several months and I decided not to renew my eSignal service. Now I only use TWS.

The guy with the cheapest lawyer

Trdr said:

do you agree that chart/order entry program authors, brokers' usually only ? account
software, and data feed providers including exchanges are liable for any and all losses
that are a direct result of a problem with Their software ?

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