Finance

Citi Trader Got 711 Warning Messages Before Sparking Flash Crash

  • Wall Street giant fined $78 million in UK for 2022 trades
  • London staffer’s fat-finger blunder triggered Europe selloff

Citigroup offices in London.

Photographer: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
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For one Citigroup Inc. trader in London, the morning of May 2, 2022 went from bad to worse.

It was a public holiday in the UK, so it should have been a quiet day in the markets. A little before 9 a.m., the staffer on Citigroup’s Delta One trading desk — who was working from home — began putting together a trade that would hedge the bank’s exposure to the MSCI World Index.