What crash? How U.S. market circuit breakers would work in a major sell-off

How bad would a U.S. stock market plunge have to get before trading would be halted?
According to the LA Times seriously bad, based on the current parameters of the New York Stock Exchange’s circuit breakers. The Dow Jones industrial average would have to fall 1,200 points, or about 10.5% based on Friday’s closing level of 11,444, to trigger a one-hour trading halt across the markets.

That’s assuming the decline comes before 2 p.m. EDT. If the Dow were to fall by that amount between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. EDT, it would trigger a trading halt of 30 minutes.

After 2:30 p.m., no trading halt could be triggered unless the Dow were to fall 2,400 points, or about 21% from Friday's level.

Whew!

Read more at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/08/stock-circuit-breakers-nyse-market-plunge-sec-individual-stocks.html