worried trader
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  • Shenzhen Changfang Group said in a security filing a major shareholder sold 16,000 shares by accident on Friday.
  • This is China’s third case of fat-finger in one week. 
  • The company said shareholder Nie Xianghong acting on behalf of investor Li Dichu picked the wrong ticker.
  • Sany Heavy Industry, and TCL Technology Group also reported fat-finger errors in the week. 
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The fat-finger is to blame again. This time Shenzhen Changfang Group said a shareholder accidentally sold 16,000 shares on Friday, the third such “fat finger” incident involving a Chinese company in a week.

The professional manufacturer of LED lighting products said Nie Xianghong, a shareholder acting on behalf of investor Li Dichu, erroneously sold 16,000 shares on Friday by putting in the wrong ticker, a regulatory filing on Sentieo, a financial-research site showed. 

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Filings show after the sale Xianghong held 6.6 million shares. 

This follows a trading error by Sany Heavy Industry and Co on Thursday which saw stakeholder Mao Zhongwu offloading 96,700 shares, Bloomberg reported Monday. 

Before that a trader at TCL Technology Group accidentally sold 5 million shares. A security filing Tuesday showed chairman and founder Li Dongsheng had apparently sold the shares and bought them back two hours later at a profit of $21,000. 

Shenzhen Changfang Group's share price has surged 158% in the last month from 2.68 ($0.39) yuan to 6.92 yuan  ($1.01) as of 7:17 am. ET. 

Fat-finger trades are the result of  human error in hitting a wrong key on a keyboard. Sometimes, their market impact can be powerful. 

Read more: 'Never been so extreme': A renowned stock bear says today's 'hypervalued' market implies the worst market returns in history - and expects a 66% crash from today's levels

A number of apparent fat-finger trades in quick succession may make it hard to determine if these are intentional or down to human error

Lv Changshun, an analyst at Beijing Zhonghe Yingtai Management Consultant Co told Bloomberg: "The way I picture this happened was that these executives wanted to test whether it was possible to sell their shares in the open market."

Changshun added: "Call them mistakes, but they were done on purpose. The executives naturally have an urge to take profit."

Read the original article on Business Insider