Loved this story from Tokyo in Japan where human error plus system error cost over £100m.  When will ‘they’ design systems with fat fingers factored in from the outset? The fact is that the two errors are fundamentally rooted in one and the same problem. The implicit concept of a system as separate from the operator/user of that system..<I should add that this error is scalable – that is it occurs at both the very small and the very large>

“Mizuho Securities revealed last week that it had placed an order on Thursday to sell 610,000 J-Com shares for one yen despite intending to sell one J-Com share for 610,000 yen as a result of a trader typing error known as “fat finger syndrome”. The mistake will cost Mizuho Securities an estimated 27 billion yen (£128 million).

“Yesterday Mr Tsurushima admitted that the Tokyo trading system failed to respond to attempts by Mizuho to cancel the order when the broker swiftly realised its mistake.”