Mirae Asset Securities develops world's first virtual trading system

Mirae Asset Securities Co. announced Thursday it has developed the prototype for the world’s first virtual trading system (VTS,) which allows for stock trading on a metaverse platform.

Experts forecast the future of trading lies in the virtual space – just as the home trading system (HTS) enabled trading to be done on computers and the mobile trading system (MTS) ushered in the era of trading on smartphones.

Come September, Mirae Asset plans to open approximately five VTS Experience Zones in and around Seoul.

The VTS is compatible with Oculus Quest 2 developed by Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook, Inc.

This is how it works.

One needs to download the Mirae Asset Securities’ VTS app and wear the Oculus Quest 2 to view current stock prices and trade in the virtual sphere.

As if in the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, the user can select his or her choice of stock with the flick of a finger and place an order for it. Comparison of different stocks around the world is also possible by scanning the globe, a virtual one, of course. 

The prototype will add further functions before commercialization, according to Mirae.

The securities firm forecasts that transactions on the VTS will be possible from next year once it gets the green light from the Financial Security Institute in terms of its cyber security.

The company also plans to make the trading system available on Naver Corp.’s metaverse platform Zepeto. 

As of last month, Zepeto’s estimated monthly active user count hovers between 12 and 15 million worldwide.

FROM HTS TO MTS

Currently the smart phone-based trading system known as MTS is the most common type of platform for stock trading in South Korea.

On the Korea Exchange, trading on MTS accounted for 41% of the total trade in 2019, surpassing the percentage of transactions on the computer-based HTS for the first time. 

The reversal came about a decade after the first iPhone was launched in 2007. 

So far this year, MTS and HTS trading ratios stand at 45% and 36% respectively, reflecting the trend of growing dependence on mobile devices in terms of stock trading.

Mirae Asset believes that the more time people spend in the metaverse, either for work or play, they will naturally shift their investment activities such as stock trading to the virtual space as well. 

“We did not want to postpone the development of a VTS to when spending time in a metaverse becomes the norm," the head of Mirae Asset Securities’ tech department told the Korea Economic Daily. "We wanted to be prepared for that time and act preemptively.” 

Write to Tae-Hoon Lee at beje@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.