Near Misses in Financial Trading: Skills for Capturing and Averting Error

Area of Science:

• Financial Risk Management
• Human Factors in Finance
• Organizational Safety

Background:

• Analysis of near-miss incidents in financial trading organizations.
• Utilizes the Financial Incident Analysis System for data collection.
• Focuses on nontechnical skills and systems for error detection and prevention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify operator skills and systems involved in near-miss incidents.
• To analyze patterns and trends in near-miss data.
• To explore the relationship between specific skills/systems and error types.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 1,000 near-miss incidents.
• Statistical methods including distribution, mean, chi-square, and associative analysis.
• Reliability assessment of the data.

Main Results:

• Slips/lapses (52%) and human-computer interface issues (21%) are primary error causes.
• Teamwork (65%) and situation awareness (46%) are critical for error prevention.
• Situation awareness and teamwork skills are consistently used to detect and prevent errors, regardless of cause.

Conclusions:

• Situation awareness and teamwork skills serve as a universal "last line" of defense.
• Incident-monitoring data can be analyzed using a "Safety-II" approach.
• Findings inform risk amelioration in financial trading with implications for management and regulation.