"Why Is This Happening When I Need to Buy Stocks?"... Errors Surge on Securities Firms' MTS Amid 'Nauseating Market Swings'

Trading Volume Surges
Errors Plague Some Securities Firms' Mobile Trading Systems

Following the Iran crisis, the KOSPI index experienced a roller-coaster ride, plummeting 18% over two days and then rebounding sharply on the 5th, which led to a series of errors on some securities companies' mobile trading systems (MTS).

On the morning of the 5th, a dealer is working in the dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News.

According to Yonhap News on the 5th, some customers of Korea Investment & Securities encountered issues with their MTS account balance inquiry service that morning. Errors occurred when checking the ETF holdings in certain accounts, and the company is currently working to resolve the issue. A representative from Korea Investment & Securities stated, "The surge in trading volume caused delays in settlement processing, which resulted in errors. We are currently responding to the situation to restore normal service as quickly as possible."

In the case of Mirae Asset Securities, the day before, ETF price drop notifications from its MTS were sent out in bulk with a delay after the market closed. This notification service is automatically triggered when the price of a stock or ETF rises or falls by more than 5%. A representative from Mirae Asset Securities explained, "When the number of notifications exceeds 500 per minute, we interpret it as the market having a clear direction, so the notifications are halted. This caused the delay in sending the notifications."

At Kakao Pay Securities, from 1:20 a.m. for about 40 minutes the previous day, some "US stock accumulation" orders were not executed. Kakao Pay Securities stated, "We confirmed that some orders failed to be executed due to a system reception failure at the local brokerage. Transactions are now being processed normally, and we have informed users of this individually."

Additionally, the previous day, some securities firms such as Mirae Asset Securities and NH Futures issued notices as services like KRX derivatives and options quotes experienced delays. A representative from the Korea Exchange explained, "The number of quotes surged, which significantly increased the quote volume compared to usual. Depending on the processing performance of each user's system receiving the quotes and the specific products used for each type of work, there may have been differences in how the quotes were displayed compared to normal."

On March 3, the first trading day after the Iran crisis, the combined trading volume of the KOSPI, KOSDAQ, and KONEX markets reached 2.519 billion shares. On the 4th, the volume reached 3.093 billion shares. Both figures far exceed this year's average daily trading volume of 2.097 billion shares as of the 4th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.