During the "J-Com Incident," how was he able to immediately identify the abnormal order as a "fat-finger" error rather than a specific institutional operation?

Sure. Let's talk about this.

This incident is practically legendary in the trading community. If you're wondering how Kosho Kawakami (aka B.N.F.) reacted instantaneously, it wasn't supernatural ability—it was peak judgment rooted in experience and logic.

Let's break it down layer by layer:

1. The Order Itself Was Absurdly Illogical

This is the core issue. Examine what the "disastrous order" actually was:

Correct action should have been: Selling 1 share of J-Com stock at ¥610,000 per share.
Actual erroneous order: Selling 610,000 shares of J-Com stock at ¥1 per share.

Set these side by side and ponder.

It’s like wanting to sell one ¥610,000 Hermès bag on a resale site, but accidentally listing "610,000 Hermès bags for ¥1 each."

Does this sound like a normal business move? Absolutely not. Anyone with basic sense would think, "Who messed up?" not "Wow! Is Hermès staging an avant-garde live performance?"

For someone like Kawakami, who lived and breathed the markets, this feeling was amplified. Institutions don’t tank the market or dump shares through suicidal tactics—effectively setting money on fire. Listing at ¥1 isn’t a trade; it’s a catastrophe.

2. The Timing and Target Defied Logic

Timing: J-Com had just IPO’d. New listings attract intense attention and volatility, but lack historical pricing data.
Target: J-Com’s total outstanding shares were ~14,500. The mistaken order? Attempting to sell 610,000 shares—over 40 times the float.

This screamed blatant impossibility. How do you offload more shares than physically exist? Every institutional maneuver fails this basic reality—proving the trader flipped "quantity" and "price" fields in a fog.

3. The Trader's Market Instinct

This veers toward the metaphysical, but remains critical.

Elite traders like Kawakami internalize market rhythms through screen-watching. Normal volatility, institutional accumulation, sell-off patterns—they recognize it all instantly.

When the "¥1-for-610,000-shares" anomaly hit, it shattered this rhythm brutally.

Like a maestro hearing a jarringly off-key note mid-symphony—they know it’s a mistake, not avant-garde improvisation. Kawakami’s instincts were that conductor’s ear. The glitched order was that piercing false note.

In Summary:

Kawakami’s "instant judgment" fused:

Absurd order design: Price-quantity inversion = abnormal human error.
Market mechanics violation: Orders can’t exceed float physics.
Instinct recognizing chaos: Such magnitude disrupts natural flow—always an accident.

His brain completed this "spot-the-glitch" game in 0.01 seconds. The rest? Sheer nerve to recognize a free fortune—and bite.