What is a 'fat-finger trade' or freak trade?
Did you know that at times a wrong entry on a keyboard by a stressed trader can also bring down shares of any mighty company? It is known as fat finger syndrome. Let us know more about it. It was one such wild swing at the National Stock Exchange -- triggered by a fat finger-- which had catapulted Chitra Ramakrishna to the helm of India's biggest bourse in April, 2013. On October 5, 2012, the so-called “fat finger trade” had triggered a massive flash crash wiping off about Rs 10trillion of investors' wealth at NSE . NSE CEO Ravi Narain had to pay the price and the baton was passed to Ramakrishna, who later got consumed by another bizarre scandal. Moving on, last week the derivative segment on the National Stock Exchange witnessed a freak trade in the weekly Nifty 50 options contract, reportedly resulting in a loss of nearly Rs 200 crore for the trader. This is not just a one-off instance. There have been such freak trades -- caused by human error. Th