[Slava]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Further on this, there is no 'mechanism' that forces a stock price to move linearly from $100 to $99.99 to $99.98 to $99.97, etc

People tend to behave this way, because people see patterns, even when they don't exist. However, each of those price points are not required, in order to get to the new price point.

So if the current bid (the highest price anyone is willing to pay) was $100, but then new information comes out that says it is worth way less, the price will immediately change to whatever the new bid is. And that bid could be anything.

9/11 happened before the markets opened. Bids immediately evaporated, and it was quickly apparent that there would be bedlam, with prices going absolutely anywhere (though obviously well down). We might have had a situation where there were literally NO bids on some securities, making them effectively (theoretically) worthless.

That is why they decided to not open the markets, and suspended all trading until things could settle, and information could be gathered and disseminated.

Well I used the word mechanism because I think that was the best word for the case. Maybe that gave the wrong impression, because I think we're saying essentially the same thing here.