The 3 Billion Dollar Typo

Rand310 writes "Mizuho, the world's second largest bank based in Japan, with total assets of nearly the GDP of France (around 1.2 trillion USD) accidentally sold 610,000 shares, valued at $3.1 billion... for 1 yen each. A 27 billion yen loss would almost match Mizuho Securities' group net profit of 28.1 billion yen for the financial year ended in March, though... the incident would not threaten the brokerage's financial stability. FYI 1 yen is about .83 cents. Yesterday one share was selling at $5,065, today you could theoretically have bought 610,000 shares for $.0083 each. An expensive switch of variables."

Comments

math check

[mapmaker]

you could theoretically have bought 610,000 shares for $.0083.

You could have bought 1 share for $.83, not 610,000 shares for $.0083.
610,000 shares would have cost $506,300 (plus commissions).