Jim Cramer is incensed about the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) outage, but mostly because no one explained what happened to Jim Cramer. The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) closed trading on all listed companies for several hours on Thursday following a technical glitch that hasn’t been completely explained, and Cramer, host of the popular CNBC show Mad Money, wanted a better explanation from NASDAQ OMX CEO Robert Greifeld.
NASDAQ claims to have fixed the problem within the first thirty minutes
“I think it’s only fair that people have more information. I’d like to know under what circumstances is it absolutely not right to communicate with the public if you think you’re protecting retail [investors] which is what Bob [Greifeld] said,” Cramer said on CNBC.
NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) claims to have fixed the problem within the first thirty minutes, according to Alex Fitzpatrick reporting for Time, but delayed further for “an orderly re-opening of trading,” though it certainly seems possible that they may have just wanted to give people time to cool down and prevent any panicked sell-offs.
“The interruption in trading, while resolved before the end of the day, was nonetheless serious and should reinforce our collective commitment to addressing technological vulnerabilities of exchanges and other market participants,” said SEC chair Mary Jo White. There has been some speculation that the glitch was related to a sudden drop in Apple’s price that caused a surge in automated selling, but at this point it’s just speculation. Luckily, the end of August is traditionally slow, and the volume of trade that was disrupted was lower than it might have been other times of the year.
Cramer’s call for greater transparency is reasonable
The lack of information is surely frustrating, and retail trading site Ameritrade said that it had a large number of questions and complaints from its customers. Cramer’s call for greater transparency is reasonable, but it also sounds like he wants to be personally in the loop.
“I disagree with the notion that [Bob Greifeld] didn’t need to tell us [CNBC]. We have a studio [at the Nasdaq] … why not come down and say we’re doing our best?” Cramer said on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Anyone who watches Mad Money is used to seeing Cramer rant about which stocks his viewers should buy or sell, but this time he seems to be ranting that Greifeld didn’t give him anything to yell about.
