I think it is OK to have trading halts for particular situations. For example, a stock may be going down quickly just because of a wild rumor. Halting trade for the day may give time to investors, so they can consider what the facts are before taking a more informed decision. On the other hand, I agree with you that trade freezes are not enough to fix true underlying issues -- as it seems to be the case with China.
Even a wild rumor is a stupid reason to halt trading. If someone is dumb enough to believe it and they sell their shares at a massive discount, it's not the job of regulators to stop that.
> I think it is OK to have trading halts for particular situations.
Sure, but that's not what I'm referring to: Anytime a stock drop by a given percentage, it is halted. Also, if the market drops by a percentage, the entire market is halted.
If those happen to be part of a larger coupled drop, then the US market would have the same problems opening that the Chinese market is having: Everyone waits for the open, tries sell all at once, re-invokes the halt, and repeat.
