monkey nonsense

Oops! Trader mistakenly spends $251 million
Taiwan stock trader looking for a new job after accidental share purchases
Updated: 1:13 p.m. ET June 28, 2005

TAIPEI, Taiwan – A Taiwan stock trader mistakenly bought $251 million worth of shares with a mis-stroke of her computer, meaning her company is looking at a paper loss of more than $12 million and she is looking for a new job.

The trader with Fubon Securities made a typo while filling in a small order from Merrill Lynch on Monday, creating confusion when many small firms inexplicably surged past the 7 percent trading limit.

“Something like this is difficult to explain to superiors,” a Fubon executive said on Tuesday.

Fubon said that the trader was unfamiliar with new computer systems and would be fired.

“There is a paper loss of more than T$400 million,” said the executive.

“However, with a good outlook for stocks in the second half, there are no plans to sell the shares in the near term.”

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I would add that to my Amusing News collection, but I guess it’s not that amusing to the lady.

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