A large domestic securities firm encounters a computer failure related to Nexttrade Free Market.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Cheol-hwan = On the morning of the 14th, computer failures occurred one after another at major domestic securities companies in connection with the free market (8:00 to 8:50 p.m.) operated by alternative exchange Nexttrade (NXT).

Mirae Asset Securities [006800] In the Home Trading System (HTS) and Mobile Trading System (MTS), there was a partial delay in the confirmation of NXT pre-market buy and sell order execution on this day.

The problems that users could feel were resolved with the end of the free market, and trading is taking place as usual from the regular market, but the operation of the Best Order Execution (SOR) system, which distributes orders between KRX and NXT, was restricted.

Mirae Asset Securities announced in a notice, "Due to the SOR system inspection, when ordering SOR, the order will be sent to KRX for regular market and NXT (3:30-4:00 p.m.) or KRX (4:00-8:00 p.m.) for aftermarket."

A source familiar with the situation said, “It is said that the cause is a problem with the SOR system provided by NXT.”

Samsung Securities users also experienced trading-related problems in the free market on this day.

In a notice titled 'Notice on emergency cancellation due to SOR failure', Samsung Securities announced, "Due to SOR failure, cancellation orders were not processed properly, so they were converted to the KRX market. Please cancel orders that have not been previously canceled."

Samsung Securities later added, "Due to the SOR failure, please select NXT for aftermarket orders between 3:30 and 4 p.m. and process the order. Exchange (automatic) orders between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. will be processed as KRX orders."

The SOR system automatically transmits the order to a relatively advantageous exchange when an investor places a stock purchase order without specifying a separate exchange.

However, it appears that both Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities were in a situation where they had no choice but to transmit orders to only one of KRX and NXT as the system was not operating properly.

An industry official said, "Due to the opening of the KRX aftermarket, the SOR application time for best order execution was extended from 3:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and expansion and changes were made to the SOR-related systems of securities companies." He said, "There is a possibility that confusion occurred in the process of applying the changes for the first time on this day."

Meanwhile, starting this day, KRX opened an ‘aftermarket’ where stocks can be traded in real time from 4 to 8 p.m.

The existing after-hours single price trading was abolished and real-time trading was introduced.

As a result, investors' options have expanded, including a significant increase in the number of stocks that can be traded. However, because NXT previously operated the aftermarket until 8 p.m., the change felt by general investors may not have been significant.