Nasdaq, down and out, for a while at least.

Nasdaq was down for a while today, in the sense of not working at all.

The sudden shutdown of Nasdaq — without any warning or explanation of what was happening — caught everyone by surprise, but it was over or nearly over by the time a lot of investors and money managers became aware of it. It freaked out systems — no bids and offers had options traders wondering if they were rich or broke until they realized what was happening — and traders, but it didn’t have the impact of a Flash Crash or even a rate hint tossed out by the Federal Reserve.

A black squirrel event?

In 1987 and 1994, the Nasdaq was shut down on two occasions when squirrels got a little too adventurous on power lines, forcing a fast flameout on trading until the power grid could be restarted.

It’s going to take the Securities & Exchange Commission days to figure out what happened and months to tell us about it, but don’t bet on the squirrels.

Instead, look at this kind of sudden “black squirrel event” — which would have created a full-blown media frenzy had it happened in panicky October instead of sleepy August — and consider what your reaction to it says about you as an investor.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nasdaq-outage-a-black-squirrel-event-2013-08-22

A glitch?  For those with money in the market it might make you wonder what safeguards there are when there's a total blackout, and what if it went on for weeks not hours? Make sure you have good records as a backup.