Fat Finger Error

Categories: Regulations, Trading

The most frequent cause of nose-picking injuries.

Also the name for a mistake in entering information with a keyboard (or smartphone). Basically, it implies that your fingers are too thick to accurately key in information.

In a financial setting, a fat finger error most often comes up in entering trades. Like...you mean to buy 10,000 shares and end up buying 100,000. Oops. It’s silly to think of a typo costing millions of dollars, but it happens.

Next time: less salt in the diet.

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)