An adventurous squirrel touched off a power failure in Trumbull, Conn., that shut down the National Association of Securities Dealers' automatic quotation service for 82 minutes, back in 1987 (December, 9th).
A Nasdaq official estimated that the power failure might have kept slightly more than 20 million shares from being traded. Since the stock market collapse in October, daily volume on the over-the-counter market has averaged about 130 million shares, he said. Before Oct. 19, volume was almost 150 million shares a day.
The breakdown was also felt at stock exchanges around the country on which options on over-the-counter issues are traded.
Source - The New Yourk Times
