Fragility By Design
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Severity is not a category. It’s a consequence.
When systems are placed under plausible stress, structural limits reveal themselves. Pre-defining severity narrows what testing is allowed to teach us.
Plausibility is the constraint.
Severity is the signal.
In certain market-adjacent activities – including execution, custody, clearing, collateral management and settlement – systems can remain technically available while conditions become progressively less stable. Trades continue to execute. Platforms respond. Processes function. From a narrow continuity perspective, the service appears intact.
Yet behaviour begins to shift.