Floor Traders 1 Computers 0

Nice to see the legacy human interface saving the day for Nyse after Tuesday’s run on stocks sent the Big Board’s fancy new electronic trading system into a tailspin. 

Capacity constraints forced the Nyse to shut down its automated trading system after a meltdown in Chinese share prices prompted a global panic that so upset the Dow Jones index calculators that they turned themselves off in protest. Cue more chaos as the index lost 178 points in the span of an instant. 

While the colour drained from the face of the screen-jockeys, and the algorithms screamed the digital equivalent of "Sell! Sell! Sell!", the remaining floor traders yet to receive their pink slips dug out their notepads and pencils and got stuck in. 

Nyse insists the problems lay with its electronic routing system SuperDot and were not related to the new hybrid system. But questions about the quality of the Big Board’s technology are  inevitably being asked. 

In an interview with CNBC, Nyse CEO John Thain played a cool hand, stressing the one aspect of the hybrid system that had engendered most criticism when the plans were initially hatched. "If anything yesterday proved that we still need people here and that really is what hybrid is all about."

The chorus of "I told you so" could be heard loud and clear from the Exchange's four remaining trading floors.