Trading firm company loses $225 million in minutes — all because an employee made a simple typo

The stock market is a space where people can earn a hefty return on investments with some assistance from trading firms, which are known for their insights. But even with all their expertise and knowledge of market behavior, a small mistake can result in massive losses for such firms. Something similar happened to Mizuho Securities Company which wanted to sell 610,000 shares for one yen. It was later revealed that the firm didn't want to do that, and the confusion was caused by a simple typo. The firm reportedly wanted to sell one share of employment agency J-Com Company at 610,000 yen ($3946.09). But the number of shares that Mizuho ended up mentioning in its order was 41 times that of J-Com's true outstanding amount. But, the Tokyo Stock Exchange processed the order anyway, as reported by CBS News. 

The firm quickly tried to cancel the incorrect share sale but all of their efforts were in vain. The mistake ultimately cost the firm a whopping 40.7 billion yen, which was equal to around $225 million at the time.

Later Japan's Financial Service Agency launched an investigation into the matter to see what went wrong. Economy and Banking Mister Kaoru Yosano later said in an interview, "In order to maintain the credibility of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I very strongly want this issue to be resolved quickly. The first thing for the Financial Services Agency to do is to determine what happened in detail. Based on that, we will decide what is needed based on the rules and regulations." The Japanese court later ordered the Tokyo Stock Exchange to pay Mizuho Securities a whopping 10.7 billion (~$69.2 million) yen as compensation after admitting that a system error prevented the firm from canceling the sale.

One more story that shows just how costly small mistakes can be, a woman had to say goodbye to her lottery winnings after she made a mistake. Denise Rossi, a woman who won the $1.3 million jackpot, unfortunately lost all her winning after she decided to keep the winnings a secret from her husband during their divorce proceedings. Rossi later found out the hard way that hiding the assets was a wrong move. She later argued in court that she was simply protecting the money from him but the judge was not convinced. 

The husband later claimed that the wife left him only after winning the lottery while Denise argues that she had been contemplating the decision for years. "If it wasn’t for the lotto, Denise and I would probably still be together," Thomas said. Later Connolly Oyler, Denise's attorney, said that if she’d have disclosed her win to him, he might have been able to save her from losing the fortune. "I could have argued successfully that it was her separate property,” he said. “Or we could have argued, and we would have reached some adjustment. But the judge got mad and gave it all to him," he added. Finally, Denise had to pay him 20 annual installments of $66,800.