So what happened on Friday when the entire stock market seemed to go haywire for a few seconds, and Apple dropped 9 percent in a matter of minutes? The trigger was an IPO for a company called BATS Global Markets, which runs its own trading platform. Somehow, the introduction of that offering caused an Apple trade to register about $50 below where the stock had been trading. In addition to Apple, other Nasdaq-listed stocks that started with A or B plunged as well.
But that's nothing compared to what happened to BATS Global itself. Its shares went on sale at $16, and within seconds had plunged all the way down to four cents a share before trading was halted. Before the day was over, BATS - which blamed a software glitch for all the problems - announced it was canceling the IPO.
What's most embarrassing about all this is that BATS - which stands for Better Alternative Trading System - markets itself as an alternative to the NYSE and Nasdaq. This was the first IPO traded on the new system. It remains to be seen if there will ever be a second.
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