Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
Market turbulence causes glitches in trading apps, account balance screenshots go viral
Brokerages in Yeouido, Seoul, Dec. 24, 2025 / Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
Wild swings in Korea’s stock market this week triggered technical glitches at several brokerage trading apps, briefly showing incorrect balances and causing screenshots of unexpected windfalls to go viral among retail investors.
The week of volatility followed sharp market moves, driven by the U.S. and Israel-Iran war.
Upon reopening after the long weekend, the benchmark KOSPI fell for two consecutive days, dropping 7.24 percent on Tuesday and 12.06 percent on Wednesday, before rebounding 9.63 percent on Thursday and 0.02 percent on Friday.
According to industry officials, the mobile trading system of Korea Investment & Securities displayed incorrect balance information for some retirement pension accounts shortly after the market opened Friday.
In certain cases, the number of shares and returns shown in the app differed from the actual holdings.
The glitch quickly drew attention online.
Screenshots circulating on an online stock community showed brokerage accounts with an evaluation amount of about 530 million won ($360,000), along with comments such as, “This isn’t my account — whose account is it?” and “For a moment I thought I got rich. My heart dropped.”
Other comments included, “Guess the system briefly made me a millionaire. I have to admit it. It was nice while it lasted. I almost started planning how to spend it.”
The brokerage said the error was caused by delays in settlement processing due to a sudden surge in trading volume.
“As investors rushed to trade during the roller-coaster market conditions, mobile trading systems experienced technical issues,” it said.
“The delay affected the system retrieving holdings for some pension accounts. We are working to resolve the issue.”
Other trading apps also experienced problems during the volatile week.
On Thursday, the mobile trading platform of Mirae Asset Securities sent a large number of exchange-traded fund price drop alerts after the market had already closed.
The brokerage said the alerts were delayed because requests surged as market volatility spiked.
Its system automatically pauses notifications if more than 500 alerts are triggered per minute, which can cause delayed delivery once the system resumes.
Separately, Kakaopay Securities said some U.S. stock orders failed to execute for about 40 minutes early Thursday due to a temporary disruption at an overseas brokerage system.
Financial authorities have begun reviewing the incidents.
The Financial Supervisory Service said it is examining the cause of the balance display error at Korea Investment & Securities and will prepare measures to prevent similar problems.