Japanese Brokerage Loses $224 Million on ‘Typing Error’

Trader meant to sell 1 share for 610,000 yen, but instead put 610,000 shares on the market for 1 yen apiece. But that’s not a typing error — it’s a user interface error. Whatever software he was using to enter the trade should have flagged it as an error before it was committed.

★ Sunday, 11 December 2005