Global IT Outage Hits FX and CFDs: IC Markets, LMAX Affected

The world is experiencing a massive IT outage caused by a CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor issue. It has even impacted the forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) brokers, as at least one broker, IC Markets, is facing an outage.

Impact on FX and CFDs Trading

“IC Markets Global is currently experiencing outages as part of a worldwide network issue, which may affect the use of our trading platforms and systems,” the website of IC Markets Global noted. “We are currently investigating and monitoring the issue and will keep you updated. Our Support Team has also been impacted, and your inquiries may be delayed.”

LMAX Global's MetaTrader 4 (MT4) retail servers are also experiencing issues. However, the company has “implemented the workaround and [is] monitoring the incident.” LMAX did not confirm whether the complications were due to the ongoing outage or something else. There are also a few reports of some issues with City Index, but those could not be confirmed.

CMC Markets, listed in London, also warning against technical difficulties due to the ongoing outage.

"We are aware of issues currently impacting access to our trading platforms," CMC stated. "While we are currently investigating, at this stage we understand that the impact is due to a third-party service provider. Other organisations including financial institutions have also been impacted."

"We are working to resolve this as a matter of priority."

A Global Outage

On Friday, the afternoon in the Asia-Pacific and morning in Europe brought an unusual outage that crippled the global IT infrastructure. It has crippled the operations of airlines, banks, and media outlets in countries ranging from Australia, India, and across Europe.

In Australia, the outage even hit telecom operators and government services.

🚨BREAKING: WINDOWS PCs CRASHING GLOBALLY DUE TO CROWDSTRIKE ISSUE

Windows computers worldwide are experiencing Blue Screen of Death errors caused by a CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor issue.

Reports of outages span multiple countries, affecting businesses and services like Amazon,… pic.twitter.com/FQBPbfbERP

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) July 19, 2024

The London Stock Exchange also confirmed that the technical issue has impacted the publication of news announcements.

“RNS news service is currently experiencing a global technical issue, preventing news from being published on www.londonstockexchange.com,” the LSE stated. “Technical teams are working to restore the service. Other services across the Group, including London Stock Exchange, continue to operate as normal.”

Just an important point on this as I’m seeing some misunderstandings: this is not a “Microsoft outage” (disclosure: I don’t work there or speak for them, Regional Directors are totally independent), it’s a CrowdStrike issue impacting Microsoft PCs.

— Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) July 19, 2024

Although not confirmed yet, experts are suggesting that CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company that produces antivirus software, issued a software update that went horribly wrong and is bricking Windows devices. Computers running Windows are crashing to the so-called ‘blue screen of death’.