Exchange Data Offers Clue to Solve ‘Flash Crash’ Mystery
- Japanese retail accounts sold most lira contracts since August
- They boosted net dollar long positions, exchange data show
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Retail investors in Japan cut their net long positions in the Turkish lira on Thursday, according to data from a trading platform, offering a clue to the mystery behind the flash crash that sent the yen soaring against every currency in the world.
Japanese individual investors slashed their net lira long positions by 42,743 contracts on Thursday, the most since August, according to data from the Tokyo Financial Exchange Inc. The contracts were worth 427 million lira ($78.7 million), though it’s unclear whether the sales sparked the lira’s decline of as much as 9.2 percent against the yen, or happened after the wild gyrations triggered loss-covering.