Oil Traders Misread Tweet, Oil Prices Spike 91
cartechboy writes "Ahh Twitter. Sometimes when you combine lightning fast information distribution and humans, minor (or not-so-minor) chaos can ensue. Yesterday, the Israeli military tweeted a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, which took place in 1973. But the tweet referenced the bombing of Syrian airports by Soviets, and oil traders, already an antsy group, assumed the tweet referred to an attack occurring that very moment. As you can imagine, this had some impact. Within an hour, the global price of oil jumped more than $1, from $110.40 to $111.50 as trading volumes soared. In the end, the traders missed a few things that would identify the tweet as historical vs imminent: Yom Kippur was weeks ago, the Soviet Union is no more, and most important, #checkthehashtag."
Re:Trading term (Score:4, Interesting)
I do the "dollar cost average" thing, putting some money in every paycheck. I specifically don't read my account statements except once a year or so for this reason. The stock market always goes up in the long term. Even if it drops for a year it'll be fine. I won't be taking money out until I retire, and that won't be for at least another 25 years... it's best to not pay attention, in my opinion.
Re:Maybe not (Score:5, Interesting)
Within an hour, it had jumped more than $1, from $110.40 to $111.50.
it jumped 1%. that's hardly significant. in fact, that's just pretty regular. this is a stupid article. who the hell approves this crap?