LIFFE Exchange down

[peterpr]

The LIFFE futures exchange is down. All pending orders withdrawn and no timeframe on getting it up and running again.

The SB Co's will have their knickers in a twist over pricing for the FTSE100 at least. Wider spreads obviously - if they continue to offer the contract at all that is.

http://www.liffe.com/marketstatus/

 

[TWI]

Just another example of what a bunch of t*ss the Liffe xchange is. Highest fees and greatest degree of incompetence. I even got in for the open today...

 

[jmreeve]

They certainly win my nomination for the world's most unreliable exchange.
There is no excuse for so much down-time, it is total incompetence.

If anyone at LIFFE is reading this thread then get you act together and hire a reliability engineer.

 

[peterpr]

Just another example of what a bunch of t*ss the Liffe xchange is. Highest fees and greatest degree of incompetence. I even got in for the open today...

Back up again at 10:25 - although Esignal feed not working yet.

Got burned by it. Short the FTSE from last nights close. Protective orders cancelled by the xchange. In with a long SB this morning but it'll cost me a couple of hundred minimum.

I think that's me done with LIFFE futures. It happens so often you've got to think about hedging pretty well every trade - options stayed up but it all adds to the cost of doing business with them.

 

[oatman]

Not so long ago they were down and their back-up didn't kick in. All that money invested in technology.Some clown had walked past and kicked a cable out!
True story

 

[TWI]

And to cap it all I got scr*wed in Euribor today....Lovely. Definitely should have stayed in bed...

 

[jmreeve]

Not so long ago they were down and their back-up didn't kick in. All that money invested in technology.Some clown had walked past and kicked a cable out!
True story

If that is true then it just shows the level of incompetence that is present at LIFFE.
It should not have been possible for that to happen.

 

[TWI]

I heard that was the reason too.
Thing that makes this nasty is that they take all our fees but when they screw up like that and money is lost nobody at Liffe gives a t*ss. They are happy to sit on their lardy ars*s being paid a salary and think about getting p*ssed up in the evening with their mates and coming in the next day hungover and incapable. thing is it makes no difference because they were useless in the first place.
We must have Lower Fees. They do not deserve the Euribor contract.

This is just MHO and a nice vent after a sh*te day.

 

[JumpOff]

The LIFFE futures exchange is down. All pending orders withdrawn and no timeframe on getting it up and running again.

The SB Co's will have their knickers in a twist over pricing for the FTSE100 at least. Wider spreads obviously - if they continue to offer the contract at all that is.

http://www.liffe.com/marketstatus/

A pending order is one that is already transmitted and parked at the exchange? limit orders, stop orders, etc..?

So when it does come back online, don't they just start processing those queued orders in date sequence?

JO

 

[peterpr]

A pending order is one that is already transmitted and parked at the exchange? limit orders, stop orders, etc..?
So when it does come back online, don't they just start processing those queued orders in date sequence?
JO

The message on the link I posted was quite clear - all outstanding orders cancelled. Period.

LIFFE don't offer stop or stop limit orders either. They have to be simulated through your broker. If the broker accepts your stop-limit order (as happened in this case) their systems monitor XChange prices and transmit the limit part of the order as soon as the stop (election) price has been hit. I haven't got to the bottom of the precise timings in my case yet but it appears that my stop was not hit and therefore the limit not transmitted before the xchange went down. Even if it had been transmitted, if there had been a spike down and the limit was not reached again before the exchange went down, the limit order would have been cancelled.

Thata's life - but LIFFE are a pain in the backside. This is the first loss I've had as a direct result, but I've lost count of the number of feed interuptions there have been + a couple more serious outages in the past year or so.

 

[peterpr]

Another thought:

There's a serious lesson here for anyone trading electronically through a broker - and that means anyone who is not a broker or exchange member in their own right.

Protective stop/limit orders always require the exchange to be operational to be executed at - or close to - the price specified. But they often require your broker's system to be operational as well. LIFFE is a case in point - they don't operate stop or stop-limit orders. There are similar creases with CBOT or CME (Mini DOW or S&P eMini) outside normal trading hours, in spite of the fact that you can get a fill with a market order 22 hours a day.

In other words you need to thoroughly understand the order rules of the exchange you are trading and have a back up provider where you can guarantee to hedge a position if you hit the kind of problem I've had today. Otherwise - worst case - you could be wiped out.

And you know what they say about events and probabilities now don't you ?

 

[oatman]

Bring back "open outcry" :cheesy:

 

[DavieG]

Bring back "open outcry"

I agree!!!!