Stockbrokers and traders are up in arms against continuing problems with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s new trading system (NTS) which they are blaming for the drop in daily trading volume and huge opportunity losses.

Despite the PSE’s claim of success in implementing the NTS, brokers said they continue to experience problems in matching orders which sometimes take up to the next day to confirm.

They note that oftentimes, because of integration problems, their orders are mismatched or they end of with more or less stock than they ordered, resulting in even more backroom work and, oftentimes, losses since they have to compensate clients for mismatched orders.

“The NTS could have been done better. There is so much disconnect between order execution and confirmation that we’ve had to consciously slow down to avoid potentially huge errors,” said one broker.

He added that “we can only wonder at the amount of business sidelined by this poorly-excuted transition. We can only hope there is no lasting damage to market integrity. We can only hope these birthing pains do not drag and lead to a long traumatic childhood.”

Brokers also complain that they cannot even get accurate information from the PSE which has not been able to provide trading data such as timely daily quotation reports.

In its daily outlook to clients, SB Equities warned that “market activity is expected to be choppy given the seemingly unending technical glitches occurring that are seriously hampering traded volumes.”

Accord Securities trader Justino Calaycay Jr. said the PSE can no longer claim these as mere glitches or birth pains since the NTS took “over two-years in the oven, yet it comes out still half-baked.”

He noted that "birth pains" will no longer be palatable as an excuse as the system turns one-week old. This even comes after various

“I'm just wondering why (problems with the NTS) haven't been addressed to the satisfaction of end-users up to now. Were these unforeseeable? This really leaves a bad taste in the mouth, giving the impression that the NTS' launch was rushed,” Calaycay said.

A fund manager said these problems are due to “stupidity and greed” and noted that the NTS should not have been launched if it was not ready.