Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) entered the new year with an old habit. PSE halted trading on 3 January 2024 from 9:32 AM to 11:55 AM when most trading participants were unable to connect to the front-end order management system and to send buy and sell orders for processing to the trading system. Based on the PSE statement dated 5 January 2024, the underlying cause of the technical problem was due to the mobile trading application and the process of authenticating active accounts and inactive accounts that had neither been accessed nor had registered a trading activity. To pour freezing water over the scorching argument, the PSE and the front-end order management system developer stated that they had implemented a design optimization on the mobile trading application and are working on related enhancements for deployment to prevent the recurrence of analogous technical problems. It is worth mentioning that this unfortunate event could be best described as a frequent annual occasion as it happened on 4 January 2022 when the PSE delayed the market opening and canceled trading before the market closing due to an arcane technical problem. For two consecutive days, the PSE canceled trading on 5 January 2022 when most trading participants were unable to connect to the Flextrade front-end system and to send buy and sell orders for processing to the NASDAQ trading engine. Through the constant coordination and collaboration with the representatives of Flextrade and NASDAQ, the PSE was able to determine and resolved the technical problem and had resumed trading on 6 January 2022. What an irony that the technical problem emerged a day after the PSE announced that it was named as the Best Stock Exchange in Southeast Asia at the Marquee Awards of the Annual Best Deal and Solution Awards 2021 by the institutional investment magazine Alpha Southeast Asia. We do understand that managing an Information Technology (IT) system is complicated and requires a competent manpower to minimize if not eliminate its technical vulnerabilities. What we do not understand is why does the PSE kept on making one step forward and two steps backward when it comes to operating and maintaining an IT system between the trading participants and trading system? Perhaps the PSE should stop justifying a trading suspension and start deploying an IT system operated and maintained by capable IT companies. A proactive approach not only strengthens the foundation created by the IT system developers but promotes a culture of stewardship and accountability.
