Peter Donovan, an oil-options broker at Vantage Trading working on the floorof the New York Mercantile Exchange, said some traders quickly exited positions after the erroneous report of a terrorist attack.
Driving Paulson's huge investment in hardware, software and communications links is his belief that the days of the conventional tradingfloor are numbered--and that the stock, options and commodities exchanges have been in denial or too sluggish to do much about it.