That potential for damage was on display on May 6, 2010, when computerized selling brought about a dizzying flash crash, and also this year, when a malfunction at Knight Capital caused prices to spin out of control.
Since the 1987 crash, the use of computerized selling programs has also been restricted.
A November, 2010, report from the Securities and Exchange Commission said that the plunge in the market had been sparked when a big asset-management company, subsequently identified as the Kansas-based Waddell and Reed, executed a computerized sell order worth billions of dollars on the E-Mini market.
The SEC, the primary federal agency charged with overseeing the U.S. stock market, has launched new efforts to more closely monitor high-frequency trading -- the ultrafast, computerized buying and selling of stocks, bonds and derivatives that now comprise the majority of stock trading in the country.
The idea for SoftwareToGo came from Precision Type, the Newmans' company, closed last year, that sold computerized typefaces to publishers and related businesses.
B.R.C. also sells computerized voter-registration systems; election supplies, including, this year, perhaps a hundred and sixty million punch-card ballots; election assistance and service; and other computerized information services for local governments.
Dealers never knew about the fake sales until a legitimate buyer wanted the car -- and the dealer would find it listed on the computerized inventory as sold, Automotive News reported.
In a brief statement, the company added that the inquiry was related to a separate S.E.C. investigation of a customer of the company's Retail Store Solutions unit, which sells computerized, point-of-sale cash registers and other products.
I went to First Bank System in St . Paul Minn., where I sold computerized banking services to small banks when computers were just starting to be used in that business.
James Marks, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, thinks Schwab could eventually create a computerized supermarket to sell CDs, mortgages, auto and student loans for banks and insurance companies.
The company lost nearly $4 million during the first six months of this year, and there are no signs the core business -- selling large computerized embroidery machines to big commercial users -- is recovering.
