Easy fix... my ass

What nobody is talking about here is "data integrity"...

It's unclear when the markets will reopen, and the exchange hasn't responded to any interview requests. It's believed the backup system also failed, preventing an easy fix.

Most large financial institutions, like banks and insurance companies are tied into large mainframe computers which usually employ a duplicate set of hard drives... known in the trade as "mirroring."

When a hard drive fails... the system automatically starts to move over to the "mirrored drives." If the "backup system" referred to in the article is actually this extra drive array... then the TSX is in deep muck.

Now the system must have optical or tape backup from the previous day... but rolling back to that breakpoint still leaves the local markets in total disarray.

The average daily volume on the TSX through the end of November was 451 million shares.

The TSX computer-monkeys must be going ape.

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UPDATE: It's not much, but...

The TMX Group has issued a statement. The inference now, is that this is a "comms issue"... rather than an outright crash...

Mr. Bertrand and company representatives declined to comment on the exact nature of the computer problem. “The important thing now is to get things going again,” Mr. Bertrand said.

In a statement, the exchange, which is owned by the TMX Group, said that the computer systems that execute trades were not affected. The problem appeared to be with the computers that delivered trading information to brokerage houses and news organizations.

In an interview with BNN, a Canadian business news television channel, Luc Bertrand, the deputy chief executive at TMX, said that the exchange decided to suspend trading after it discovered that only some users were able to track trades.

Perhaps the earlier reference to a failure of "backup systems" was just unfounded rumour.

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LAST WORD: That's it for today

-- December 17, 2008 (TORONTO) -- Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange will not resume trading today due to continuing technical issues with its data feeds.

The market will be put into a Pre-Open state from 3:00PM to 5:00PM to allow participants the option of cancelling, adding or changing orders.

The company intends to open the exchanges tomorrow morning.

Additional information on the nature of the problem will be provided when the investigation is complete.

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