{"id":99144,"date":"2022-06-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleksawn.bget.ru\/10-neveroyatnyx-veshhej-kotorye-zakryli-fondovuyu-birzhu\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:22:26","slug":"10-unbelievable-things-that-broke-the-stock-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/10-neveroyatnyx-veshhej-kotorye-zakryli-fondovuyu-birzhu\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Unusual Reasons Why Stock Markets Closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

These days, the financial world is more connected than ever, thanks to cryptocurrency, which has opened doors for people who had little interest in finance due to the perceived complexity of the stock market. And let's be honest, the stock market has long seemed inaccessible to most people. Very few people own stocks, but reports suggest that approximately 60% people own stocks in recent years, 52% have retirement accounts, and only 14% directly invest in stocks. For many, the stock market is something distant and incomprehensible, but it is subject to many of the same simple things that the rest of the world faces, and has even been shut down for seemingly bizarre reasons over the years.<\/p>\n

10. Covid-19 shut down the NYSE<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In early 2020, as we were all adjusting to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Stock Exchange also closed. It was March, when it closed so the system could switch to electronic trading, thus eliminating the need for everyone to share a floor and potentially expose themselves to the virus. This move was made after two positive Covid tests.<\/p>\n

The exchange remained closed for just over two months before reopening in May 2020, with precautions in place to allow people to return, such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing, like everyone else. However, most people continued to work remotely.<\/p>\n

9. The Tokyo Stock Exchange's backup system was disabled.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you've ever called tech support about electronics not working, the first questions they ask always sound incredibly condescending. Is it plugged in? Is it turned on? Most of us feel insulted by these questions, but the truth is, they often ask them because they actually are a problem. Apparently, this was also the reason the Tokyo Stock Exchange shut down in 2020.<\/p>\n

Trading was halted for the entire day, which was widely reported as a software and hardware glitch. Backup systems also failed, leaving traders without anything to do all day.<\/p>\n

So what happened to the backup system? Someone set it to "off." It had been disabled for five years, ever since they updated their system, but it was never needed before, so no one noticed. Ironically, before their update, the system was configured to switch back even if it was disabled. But the update removed this feature.<\/p>\n

8. A solar flare shut down the Toronto Stock Exchange.<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most of the reasons for stock exchange closures, as we'll see, are terrestrial. But not all of them. It turns out the sun sometimes plays tricks on us, and that's exactly what happened to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1989, when it closed on August 16th due to a solar flare.<\/p>\n

A few months earlier, a powerful solar flare caused power outages in the Canadian province of Quebec and parts of Ontario. The one in August was even more severe, but the earlier one at least had prepared officials with some idea of what to expect and how to handle it.<\/p>\n

Electromagnetic interference caused three different disk drives, designed to act as backups for the system, to fail one after another, like falling dominos. As a result, the exchange was taken offline for three hours while repairs were made.<\/p>\n

7. A rock band stormed the NYSE<\/h2>\n

The American rock band Rage Against the Machine has always been steeped in politics, as if the band's name weren't enough. For years, their music has been overtly political, even if some of their fans never realized it. One particularly striking example of their beliefs is that the band actually filmed a video on Wall Street that advocated shutting down the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n

Director Michael Moore, himself no stranger to controversial political views, was scheduled to film the video for "Sleep Now in the Fire" on the steps in front of the stock exchange. According to lead singer Tom Morello, they had permission to use the steps, but not the sidewalk. While they were filming, Moore ordered them to step onto the sidewalk. They did so, and a police officer immediately ordered them to move.<\/p>\n

Moore told the band to keep performing no matter what, so they kept playing. Except, being a music video, they weren't actually playing. They were just miming the moves to the song. So the officer tried to turn off Morello's guitar, but nothing happened. The same thing happened when he turned off the bass and drums. Frustrated and angry, the officer arrested Michael Moore, after which Moore yelled at the band to agree to a trade.<\/p>\n

Morello and his team headed inside and told security they were there for the exchange. Security raised the alarm, called riot police, and then locked everything down.<\/p>\n

6. Movie Trading Places halted $6 billion in trading<\/h2>\n

1983 film\u00ab"Trading Places"\u00bb<\/i> , perhaps the funniest film ever to climax on the stock exchange floor, sees Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy team up to financially upend a pair of old millionaire con artists who ruined their lives.<\/p>\n

The film's trading scenes were shot at the Comex World Trade Center commodity exchange. This gave it a genuine air of authenticity, but also posed a problem. It was a real-life exchange, and the film crew traveling to the location made work impossible. The diversion of actors and filming during normal business hours resulted in the suspension of $6 billion in trades. Naturally, production had to pack up and return over the weekend, when the market was closed for completion.<\/p>\n

5. Trading fell more than 40% during the Simpson trial<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today, it's hard to imagine how important the O.J. Simpson trial was if you weren't there. You can read about it, but to understand how it seemed to dominate the media and pop culture for months is something you had to experience firsthand. Looking back, it doesn't even make sense, since O.J. Simpson was barely a household name at the time, a man whose professional football career had ended more than 15 years earlier and who had starred in only a few B-movies, including The Naked Gun.\u00ab.<\/i> franchise.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the trial turned into a notorious media circus, with an estimated 150 million people watching the verdict on television. Stock trading then plunged 41%. A bewildering set of predictions made before the trial predicted a record number of people calling in sick, which would devastate overall productivity, not to mention a sharp decline in housing conditions and a rise in unemployment, all linked to the trial. A stock market slump was also predicted, with the expectation that traders would quit their jobs to see what would happen.<\/p>\n

4. Groucho Marx stopped trading for 15 minutes in 1950<\/h2>\n

\"Groucho<\/p>\n

Groucho Marx was once one of the biggest names in Hollywood. He was so famous that in 1950, he was invited to the New York Stock Exchange simply to check out the place and get a feel for it. Ever the consummate entertainer, when Marx gained access to the public address system, he took over and began singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" to the assembled traders. It's said that when they tried to take the microphone from him, he complained that he'd lost all his money in the stock market during the 1929 crash, so at least the song was his. And with that, he froze the market for a full 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

The distraction was enough to attract the attention of traders, who stopped to watch. After all, Marx was a professional artist and had made the song famous about 11 years earlier.<\/p>\n

3. Squirrels closed markets twice<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Are squirrels plotting to financially ruin America? We'll leave that question to the zoologists. But there's growing evidence that the little rodents have set their sights on the stock market, as they've shut it down not once, but twice. Between natural disasters and war, you'd be hard-pressed to find many things that have ever shut down the stock market twice. But squirrels have.<\/p>\n

In 1987, a squirrel shut down the markets for 82 minutes after shorting out the electrical systems of the National Association of Securities Dealers. It was estimated that approximately 20 million shares could not be traded as a result.<\/p>\n

In 1994, another squirrel chewed through several wires that the stock market's backup systems were not prepared to replace, knocking them out for 34 minutes.<\/p>\n

2. Loud noise shut down European stock exchanges<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What do small dogs, your grandmother, and the stock market have in common? You want to try to protect them from loud noises that might disturb them. In 2018, it was discovered that computers monitoring European markets are sensitive to loud whistles, and they can and will shut down when they are exposed to them.<\/p>\n

The problem was caused by a fire alarm in a data center in Sweden. The noise generated by the fire suppression system was so loud that it damaged servers and knocked out stock exchanges in seven countries, including Denmark, Finland, and some of Iceland's servers. They had to fly in new servers, so the markets were down for several hours until they were fixed.<\/p>\n

If you're interested in the science, it has to do with vibrations. The noise disrupted the alignment of the hard drives in the servers, essentially shaking them so violently that they became useless in terms of their read\/write capabilities. Noise levels reaching 110 decibels can affect a hard drive, and the fire alarm system produced 130 decibels.<\/p>\n

1. Woman in a tight sweater<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This account is either the most incredible or the most completely plausible, depending on your perspective. In 1968, not only the New York Stock Exchange but Wall Street itself was paralyzed by Francine Gottfried, also known as "Sweater Girl.".<\/p>\n

Gottfried was working on Wall Street at the time, and she walked to the office. There's no reasonable way to say this, so we'll just leave it at that: groups of men milled around to look at her because she wore tight sweaters. Gottfried's figure was such that it cast what might be called an alluring silhouette\u2014that is, she had large breasts, and in 1968, the idea of huge crowds of men leaving a woman with large breasts alone wasn't something that occurred to many people.<\/p>\n

According to stories, each day more and more men joined the crowd to watch her go to work, culminating in a stampede on the afternoon of September 19. A crowd of 5,000 people, and some sources say 6,000, gathered, abandoning their offices and leaving the stock exchange unattended.<\/p>\n

Police had to close the street and escort her to her work at the data center because the crowd was damaging cars, climbing on them to get a better look. Trading ground to a halt as bankers and merchants ran to their windows to see what was happening.<\/p>\n

By October 5, other women had also shown up to cause a scene, complete with published measurements and police for crowd control. As for Gottfried, she was reportedly offered $100,000 for a few nightclub appearances. There's no word on whether she'll accept.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These days, the financial world is bigger than ever thanks to cryptocurrency, which has opened the doors for people who had little interest in finance due to its seeming simplicity.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fakty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bukvaved.top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}