The New York Stock Exchange just invoked an arcane rule last used after the Great Recession

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 24 August 2015

In a sign of how badly the world has been rattled by the downturn in China's financial markets, the New York Stock Exchange invoked the rarely-used Rule 48 this morning.

Normally, before trading opens on the exchange floor, price indicators and other data are handed out to help traders determine the floor price of stocks before things get going. But if markets are sufficiently freaked out — or "volatile," to use the relevant parlance — invoking Rule 48 allows the NYSE to skip or simplify much of that process, so they can just get on with trading.