ASX outage to trigger market shake-up Save Share The stockmarketâs snap trading shutdown last year has forced financial regulators to develop plans to inject more competition against the Australian Securities Exchange and move to compel stockbrokers to connect to its competitor Chi-X. The Council of Financial Regulators had been investigating how to make competition with the ASX more effective, government officials said, after a software glitch caused the exchange to lock up thousands of buy and sell orders in November. The ASX enjoys a near monopoly on stock exchange trading and clearing and is one of the worldâs most profitable bourses.