Funny story.
Back in the late 1990’s I ran a Daytrading office. I had 20 or so traders in the office and supported a dozen remote clients.
This one remote client was a very very active trader, executing a few hundred trades a day. We spoke on the phone constantly. I had supervisory rights that could not only see, instantly, every message he sent but could reach into his account and make changes as needed.
He knew this, it wasn’t unusual.
Soo, he calls me one day Screaming....
“This system sucks”...........
“It doesn’t work”...............
“Look...I’m trying to buy XYZ ? ....nothing... nothing ..Sell ABC ? nothing... “
“I push the button to buy or sell and nothing happens” (he knows that I can see every buy or sell request he submits, instantly)
I tell him “I got nothing” “Can I put in an order for you ?”
He says “LOOK !!, I’m hitting BUY BUY BUY, SELL SELL SELL, and nothing, Nothing”
OK, so I’m trying to figure out what is going on while he is “rightfully” screaming since he has money on the line.
Keep in mind, this entire conservation happened in less than 30 seconds.
Suddenly he says “wait” ...................
“WTF” ?
“Somethings wrong”
“WTF” ?
As he watched his earlier mouse movements and commands being played out.
Every single movement of his mouse and clicks he made were being replayed without his control.
I saw his orders come flying in as he said “I gotta go”
It was insane. He must have entered 2 dozen buy/sell orders in an attempt to prove the system/platform was flawed.
I watched all those orders come through.
What a mess.
So, he comes back and says “there is still something wrong and you need to come down here to fix it”
I made the trip.
I walked into his office, all a very respectable presentation of an up and coming Hedge fund.
He had four Dell flat screens, running on a single PC.
Cool.
As I turned the corner and saw the “Pipes” screen saver running,,,,, WOW
WOW
I knew instantly the problem.
WOW
He happened to catch his “screen saver” at a point in which it built up and prioritized the resources needed to run.
His mouse actions didn’t override the screen saver and were put in a cue, so to speak.
The screen saver never launched.
I turned off his screen saver and went home.
ok. that is a funny story