Update:
It appears that the NYSE has reconsidered the consequences of only closing floor trading and closed the markets completely for Monday and possibly Tuesday.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-28/all-us-equity-markets-closed-monday-due-sandy
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The New York Stock Exchange and Mercantile Exchange has cancelled floor trading due to Hurricane Sandy. However, electronic trading will continue as usual. High frequency trades (HFTs) could be used to collapse the market under these conditions. Monday trading will be the best opportunity for Chinese or Iranian hackers to collapse the system. Let’s hope that our security systems will hold up if this attack is launched.
David DeGerolamo
Exchanges Close Trading Floors as Hurricane Sandy Nears
The New York Stock Exchange and New York Mercantile Exchange canceled floor trading tomorrow as Hurricane Sandy barreled toward New York City with the threat of a 10-foot storm surge and 70 mile-per-hour winds.
The market operators said trading would occur normally on their electronic platforms. NYSE Euronext said it took the action after city and state officials declared emergencies and suspended public transportation starting tonight.
‘Without Humans’
“The question is how will NYSE function without humans?” Ben Willis, a managing director at Albert Fried & Co., a boutique broker in New York, said in a phone interview. “It would be a very painful event,” he said. “We’d see what will happen if the floor isn’t there to trade.”
