Toronto Stock Exchange Delays And Outages

A series of technology-related incidents interrupted trading at the TSE today. The opening of trading was delayed, for one hour this morning, due to a problem related to a single hardware component (CPU) in the TSE's communications infrastructure. To remedy the problem, applications and communications lines were moved to other CPUs. Following discussion with its members, TSE management made the decision to defer opening the market until trade orders could be re-entered and conditions for a fair and orderly market restored. The TSE and the supplying hardware vendor will repair the problem unit and it will be re-installed after the close of trading today. The morning's CPU issues triggered a unique condition, where optimal CPU performance could not be guaranteed, and this resulted in inconsistent order flow across the market. Management determined that this situation created unfair market conditions and closed the market at 1:17pm. The TSE re-established a pre-opening session at 1:55pm and trading resumed at 2:55pm. At approximately 8:30am this morning, TSE computer operations were aware of a problem. Normal diagnostic and recovery processes were not successful at restoring services. At that time the backup procedure was initiated and application and systems services were restored at 9:13am. At approximately, 9:15am TSE management decided to delay the opening until 10:00am. This was to provide sufficient time to the members, enabling them to manage order flow in their systems, and to ensure a fair market opening. A short time later, the opening was extended again - to 10:30am -at the request of members to allow additional time related to the management of order flow in their own systems. Trading then opened at 10:30am on record 23,718 transactions-almost 20% higher than the previous record opening. Unique conditions, created by the CPU problem, resulted in inconsistent order flow. This was not optimal for a fair market, and management decided to shutdown the market at 1:17pm. The TSE began a pre-opening session at 1:55pm, followed by a market open at 2:55pm. The fully automated Toronto Stock Exchange consistently ranks among the world's top exchanges by market capitalization and trading volume. In 2000, the average daily value of TSE trading has exceeded $3 billion. The TSE provides investors with a well-regulated, fair and accessible marketplace.