Glitch hits online trades

February 5, 2001: 5:04 p.m. ET

Displaced decimals cause problems at Ameritrade and Charles Schwab

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A glitch that left decimal points off stock quotes caused trading problems for major online brokerages early Monday, including Ameritrade Holdings Corp. and Charles Schwab.

Omaha, Neb.-based Ameritrade (AMTD: Research, Estimates) first noticed that stock quotes provided by Comstock, a service of Standard & Poor's, were missing decimal places shortly after 9:00 a.m. CT, a half hour after markets opened, making it look as if some stocks had soared, and others tanked. The company halted online trading at 10:05 a.m. CT, a company spokesman said.

At San Francisco-based Charles Schwab (SCH: Research, Estimates), the glitch affected a limited number of equities.

"The quote vendors we use gave incorrect quotes mostly for over-the-counter (OTCs) stocks on pink sheets," said Charles Schwab spokesman John Sommmerfield. "Under 100 such trades were affected by the incorrect quotes. We canceled the erroneous orders and the problem has mostly been fixed."

Officials at Ameritrade were investigating the problem, the spokesman said, adding that nothing had been ruled out, including a computer virus.

Clients attempting to trade online were instructed to call an 800 telephone number to complete their trades with a broker, but at the lower online commission fee, a company spokesman said.

ComStock provides stock market data to thousands of customers, including CNNfn.com, Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) and Quicken, as well as numerous brokerages and individual investors.

A spokesman for competitor Datek Online, which also uses ComStock, said all operations were functioning normally Monday.

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The spokesman could not say Monday afternoon how many of Ameritrade's 1.3 million clients had been affected by the glitch. The company also did not say how it planned to handle any trades made based on the incorrect quotes.

David Brukman, vice president of technology at Harrison, N.Y.-based ComStock, said the company had received numerous complaints about incorrect stock quotes throughout the day Monday, and that the problem was being investigated.

"We're trying to correlate customer reports with what data we sent out on the exchange," Brukman said. "The prices that have been reported are incorrect. They are off by a significant number. It's possible it's a decimal point number."

Brukman did say he has found no evidence suggesting a computer virus or hacker attack.

Shares of Ameritrade closed Monday down 16 cents at $9.44. Schwab shares closed down 66 cents at $25.99.