What Really Happened the Night the Nickel Market Broke
Hundreds of pages of legal filings describe how the LME sleepwalked into a crisis, unaware of a massive short squeeze centered around metals giant Tsingshan.
Traders, brokers and clerks on the trading floor at the London Metal Exchange.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergMatthew Chamberlain had just presided over one of the wildest days in the history of metals markets when he sat down to type a late-night memo to the UK’s financial regulator. But the London Metal Exchange’s chief executive was optimistic.
It was the evening of March 7 last year and nickel prices had surged as much as 90% to an unprecedented $55,000 a ton, causing huge strains across the market. A large Chinese bank had missed a margin call in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Financial Conduct Authority was beginning to demand updates.