Thursday, January 12, 2006

Japanese Software Bugs Bite Back

Christian Caryl writes in Newsweek:

For 2006, the Tokyo stock exchange has decided to supplement its computer systems with an exotic new backup technology: people.

In December an employee at the Japanese investment firm Mizuho entered a mistaken sell order into the TSE's computerized trading system, which didn't allow the trade to be canceled once the mistake was noticed. The result: a transaction that ended up costing the company about $346 million. Earlier, on Nov. 1, another computer glitch had shut down the entire bourse for four hours.

Hence the announcement, just before Christmas, that a group of select officials who monitor trading at the exchange would henceforth be allowed to suspend transactions that look like mistakes—something that wasn't permitted under earlier rules.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home