A ‘fat-fingered’ trading error sent a spasm through the Japanese economy on Wednesday after stock orders worth $711 billion were accidentally cancelled.

In what could be the biggest trading error of all time, stock orders for 42 companies totalling 67.78 trillion yen were entered and then cancelled by an anonymous broker.

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According to a Bloomberg report, the transactions as worth more than the value of sweden’s economy and the biggest order was for 1.96 billion shares of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), or 57 per cent of outstanding shares in the carmaker.

‘Fat finger’ trading mistakes, describing human error caused by hitting the wrong button on a computer, are not uncommon in the finance world, but the size of the Japanese slip-up made it exceptional.

“This was an OTC (over-the-counter) crossing, so it didn’t affect the market that much,” Akihiro Ohara, head of sales trading at Société Générale Securities in Tokyo, told CNBC. “But the amounts were so huge, people were a little bit freaked out.”

The last fat-finger error in the Japanese market occurred in 2009, when UBS accidentally ordered 30 trillion yen worth of debt from Capcom, instead of the intended 30 million yen.