Anadarko (NYSE:APC) Bid Triggers Circuit Breaker

On Tuesday an odd bid or trade on Anadarko Petroleum Corp (NYSE:APC) triggered the circuit breakers on the New York Stock Exchange, causing a trading halt on the company.

What causes the circuit breaker to be tripped is if a stock S&P 500 mover in any direction over 10 percent during a period of five minutes.

The bid on the stock was a strange $99,999 for 200 shares in the company.

Taking into account the stock is trading at $38 and change, it suggests something else was happening.

It could have been a test that wasn't publicly announced, or an investor testing the circuit breaker to see if it would indeed kick in.

Without going down the conspiracy theory path, it is still a very strange occurrence, and one that was obviously done for a purpose other than the obvious.