On the morning of October 31, Zerodha users faced yet another technical glitch on the trading platform. This incident led to several issues, including problems with order placement, unexecuted orders, and orders not exiting as intended.
The recurring technical glitches in brokerage trading platforms have sparked a growing debate about accountability for losses incurred by traders due to backend technical issues during volatile market events.
Frustrated traders took to various platforms to voice their complaints. Tweets such as “Where is my trade? It’s executed but not showing in my position” and “My Zerodha order positions are not appearing” highlighted the problems users were experiencing.
One user directly held Zerodha responsible for their losses, stating, “Because of Zerodha’s server issue, my positions haven’t been visible for 10 minutes, causing me losses. Your team claims they can’t do anything about it. Is it not your responsibility?”
Zerodha’s Response
Zerodha acknowledged the issue and provided an explanation. The platform experienced a technical problem that disrupted the display of positions on the NSE, BSE, and MCX exchanges, starting at 9:00 AM. This issue resulted in intermittent difficulties in viewing positions on the platform.
Zerodha clarified that while there were intermittent display problems, affected positions were eventually displayed to clients after multiple refreshes. Importantly, the order status was correctly displayed on the orders page for all users, and the ability to place, modify, and cancel orders remained unaffected. The Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for the issue is still pending.
Zerodha in the Spotlight
This incident follows recent events where Zerodha faced scrutiny due to a trader named Vijay winning a case against the platform. Vijay experienced losses in July because of a technical glitch and raised concerns about the lengthy process required to claim a refund. Zerodha has been under scrutiny from users due to app glitches leading to trader losses.
Additionally, the BSE’s Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) ordered Zerodha to clarify that it had obtained a leased line with a minimum bandwidth of 4 Mbps, as required by the exchange. The GRC alleged that Zerodha received alerts from the exchange when the bandwidth exceeded 70 percent utilization, but the broker did not take corrective action. Venu Madhav, Chief Operations Officer at Zerodha, contested the GRC’s claim, stating that the BSE never sent alerts regarding the breach of 70 percent bandwidth utilization and deemed the GRC’s observation a “blatant mistake.”
