Key facts
- Nasdaq's Smarts software, intended to detect illegal trading activities, experienced a failure.
- The software's malfunction impacted alerts for hundreds of products.
- Users were informed of the issue through an email on July 8.
Nasdaq's Smarts software, a tool designed to help market participants identify suspicious trading activities such as spoofing, frontrunning, and insider trading, has experienced a significant failure. The software was reportedly not performing its intended function, leading to a lack of alerts for potentially illegal behavior. This malfunction affected hundreds of products. Users of the Smarts software received an email on July 8 detailing the issue.