1) What exactly caused this "technology issue"? Knight still hasn't told us. I mentioned several times yesterday that the NYSE had launched a new program Wednesday, the Retail Liquidity Program (RLP), essentially a dark pool inside the NYSE. It is quite possible that Knight had a problem interacting with that program due to some kind of coding issue. Other firms apparently interacted with the RLP without incident.
2) Why did it take so long to shut the damn errant program off? It ran for almost 30 minutes! Traders on the floor noticed a problem within the first couple minutes of the open — I was standing there — but it appears to have kept running to almost 10 a.m. ET.