Several major investment apps were temporarily unavailable for small investors during what some veteran market followers said were some of the wildest stock market sessions of their careers, which US regulators said they were examining.
Investment apps owned by Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD), Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW) and Fidelity International all saw technical issues or shutdowns of their apps on Friday and Monday, along with TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) and Vanguard.
Online brokerage Schwab said in a statement to customers on its website on Monday: "Due to a technical issue, some clients may have difficulty logging in to Schwab platforms", while Fidelity told media it was "aware some customers experienced intermittent issues".
Outage tracking website Downdetector said 14,500 Schwab users were affected, with more than 3,600 affected users for Fidelity.
Schwab and Fidelity said later on Monday that the issues, which prevented customers from logging in to their accounts on a day when the Nasdaq fell 2.4%, had been resolved.
Robinhood shut down its after hours trading market due to controls built into its BOATS risk control system that prevents stocks from trading more than 20% above or below the price set toward the end of extended trading hours.
The US markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, said it was "actively monitoring" the issues "for the orderly functioning of markets", a spokesperson told Reuters.
Wall Street's "fear gauge", the VIX volatility index, soared 181% at one point to its highest level since early 2020.
Deutsche Bank analysts said the VIX rise of 42.34 points from Friday’s close, was much more than the largest full-day move since the index was first calculated in 1990 of 21.57 points from the initial Covid wave in 2020.
One said Monday was in some measures "the wildest day of my 29-year career and will make the rides I’m going on at Disney Land Paris this time next week seem a bit like the toddler rides at Peppa Pig World by comparison".