April Fools Sees Fake Extra Millions For Users of Brokerage Site 280
Upstart online brokerage site Zecco had an unfortunate April Fool's day snafu that they are claiming was an honest mistake. Users logged on to find larger balances than they should have, sometimes millions of dollars extra, and many of those users started trading with the nonexistent money. Happy April Fool's Day. "... when Zecco realized it, the company apparently started to force sell, even at a loss, charging the losses to the customers along with a '$19.99 broker-assisted trading fee.' Oops."
Once again... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
Quit making excuses guys, and head on down to the gallery...
What language should we use for our site? Perl OK (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously. I thought all financial institutions had given up on using Perl for their back-end systems. One misplaced _$ and suddenly everyone is swimming in money.
Next time use a strict typing language like Haskell.
Joke's on them (Score:5, Funny)
As of today, the money is still in my account, but there is a hold on it. Apparently, the funds transfer was initiated properly, fully authorized... so my bank is holding the funds while I accrue interest on it until they determine final disposition.
Oh hell, who am I kidding... I don't have 0.2 MM in an online investment account. Hell, I don't think I have 0.2 MM is assets, unless you include my wife & daughter, who I could probably sell for that much if I found a good buyer or if there was a bidding war.
Oops... was that my out-loud voice?
Re:Joke's on them (Score:5, Funny)
Hell, I don't think I have 0.2 MM is assets, unless you include my wife & daughter, who I could probably sell for that much if I found a good buyer or if there was a bidding war.
Pics?
Re:What language should we use for our site? Perl (Score:5, Funny)
I appreciate a good Perl joke as well as the next Perl hacker, but if you wedge a "_$" into your code you'll just get syntax errors. Did you mean "$_"? That error (misplaced default parameter) I've seen quite often, mostly among Perl nubs.
I can't comment on the frequency or trend of Perl back-end systems. Most back-end systems I've worked with are J2EE.
Your ideas on type-safety are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Re:What language should we use for our site? Perl (Score:5, Funny)
Hahaha, surely, thou art on the highway to Hell.
Ducketh thou, the swine that thou hast cast your perl before will rise up and smiteth thee.
Re:Joke's on them (Score:5, Funny)
Did the dollar got so low that now we are valuing things in m&ms?
Re:Joke's on them (Score:1, Funny)
How much for the little girl? How much for the women?
Your women. I want to buy your women. The little girl, your daughters... sell them to me. Sell me your children.
Re:Joke's on them (Score:5, Funny)
Just as programmers have their own set of $LINGOISTIC_TERM, people in finance have theirs. Here are some more examples to help ease your understanding, and to translate from techian:
M -- a thousand. From Roman numerals.
P&L -- profit and loss statement.
S&M -- Sales and Marketing. Unfortunately.
C&D -- Cease and desist. Borrowed from Law.
C&C -- an RTS, or a Music Factory. Must be disambiguated via context.
$ -- dollar. Not string. Although worth about the same.
$$ -- More than one dollar. Not a fascist police organization.
CBA -- Cost-benefit analysis. Or maybe a basketball leage.
ROI - A French king.
DM - direct margin. Not a runner of a table-top fantasy game.
HTH.
Re:Generally speaking... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Joke's on them (Score:2, Funny)
Well, I do have that much in a brokerage account, and like you, I transferred the unexpected bonus to my checking. There is a hold on the account, but if you can give me your account number, I think I can transfer the money to you, and I will be glad to let you keep half of it....
Re:Joke's on them (Score:4, Funny)
Accrue interest in your account, not in your hand?
Re:Joke's on them (Score:5, Funny)
I made all of that up, it's a guess.
Pretty plausible though, huh?
Re:What language should we use for our site? Perl (Score:4, Funny)
use haskell;
Re:What language should we use for our site? Perl (Score:1, Funny)
The Perl pseudocode that started it all..
1) Increase tradeable $.
2) __$_$$_$_$_$$
3) PROFIT!
Re:Responsibility..... (Score:3, Funny)
I gues this all depends on location...
If it's in the contract you sign with a bank, then fair enough....
I was talking about the ethics of the situation however, not legalities.
On that score though, certainly where I live (Scotland), if you have a parking facility you offer to people under conditions (such as your car being forfeit if you don't pay), you've agreed to a contract by parking there, as long as the sign is clearly visible etc.
So tough shit....
Re:What about those who were ahead on trades? (Score:3, Funny)
for those keeping track, its: slashdot links to techdirt links to consumerist links to mymoneyblog links to zecco forums
I always thought it was:
- Slashdot links to
- Metatron links to
- God links to
- 4chan