Possible Erroneous Trades Affect Google Close (GOOG)

If you have ever seen odd trading, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) saw its fair share of odd trading.  Shares had been up the entire day and right before today’s close there was a massive drop in the price of the stock.  The close was $341.43, which would be an astronomic intraday drop after yesterday’s move and would mark a 52-week low. Its shares fell roughly $50.00 to $381.00 on Monday during the market meltdown.  Today’s move was something else entirely.  Unfortunately, this is the sort of thing that can major problems beyond just how it appears because this was also the end of the quarter. This is likely trading errors or a glitch of some sort, but below is more data.

We have contacted NASDAQ and it will not verify anything yet other than referring us to the trade status pageon NASDAQ TRADER.  Google has also yet to respond, although with sometraders perhaps losing their fortunes from this it is expected that thecontacts in Google are swarmed with calls.

Below is what NASDAQ TRADER has as of 16:18:33 ET:

NASDAQ MarketWatch is investigating potentially erroneoustransactions involving the security Google Inc Cl – A "GOOG" executedafter 15:57:00 today. MarketWatch will advise with details as soon asavailable. Participants should review their trading activity forpotentially erroneous trades and request adjudication through theClearly Erroneous process within the applicable timeframe for filingpursuant to the rule.

We show shares back up between $405.00 and $406.00 in after-hourstrading today.  We won’t rule for NASDAQ nor for other trading issues,but that appears to be some major trade errors causing this issue today.  Either that or a huge trader fell asleep with their finger on the SELL button.

Jon C. Ogg
September 30, 2008