In business, cornering the market is an illegal attempt to buy up enough of a particular commodity to allow the price to be manipulated. It is also possible to make even more money by buying futures contracts on the commodity, and selling them at a profit after inflating the price. Wall Street, Manhattan is the location of the New York Stock Exchange and is often used as a symbol for the world of business. ... The word commodity is a term with distinct meanings in business and in Marxian political economy. ... In finance, a futures contract is a standardized contract, traded on a futures exchange, to buy or sell a certain underlying instrument at a certain date in the future, at a pre-set price. ...

Cornering the market has a long and checkered history. Although there have been many attempts to corner markets in everything from tin to cattle, to date very few of these attempts have ever succeeded. The party attempting to corner a market can become very vulnerable, due to the size of their position, especially if this becomes widely known. If the rest of the market senses weakness, they will resist any attempt to artificially drive the market any further than some point, by actively taking opposing positions. When the price starts to move against the cornering party they are in a very difficult position, as it is likely to be impossible to exit much of their position without catastrophically moving prices against themselves. In such a circumstance, many other parties will be able to profit from the cornerer's need to unwind their position. General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 118. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage, kine archaic, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ...

One of the most infamous attempts from the early 1960s later became known as the Great Salad Oil Swindle, in which Tino De Angelis not only attempted to corner the market on soybean oil, but sold contracts in the oil and used the money to buy futures as well. In fact it turned out he had no oil, just tanks filled with water, and when the scheme was eventually discovered $175 million evaporated overnight. The outrageously crowded Woodstock festival epitomized the popular antiwar movement of the 60s. ... Tino De Angelis was a New York-based commodities trader who bought and sold vegetable oil futures around the world. ... Tino De Angelis was a New York-based commodities trader who bought and sold vegetable oil futures around the world. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ...

A particularly blatant example occurred in 1980 when brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt attempted to corner the silver markets. Bunker and Herbert started investing in silver as a hedge against inflation, and by 1980 it was estimated that they held one-third of the world's supply of the metal. However when this became clear the price of silver actually fell, and the Hunt brothers failed to meet huge margin calls on their futures contracts. This sparked a panic on commodity and futures exchanges, culminating in a 50% one-day decline, known as Silver Thursday, on March 27, 1980. A consortium of US banks provided a $1.1 billion line of credit to enable the brothers to pay their debts, which were backed by H. L. Hunt's petroleum empire. When the oil market collapsed in the mid-'80s, the entire Hunt oil company was nearly wiped out, although the brothers still have personal trust funds with hundreds of millions each. 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Nelson Bunker Hunt (born February 22, 1926 in Dorado, Arkansas) is an American businessman. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... In finance, a margin is collateral that the holder of a position in securities, options or futures contracts has to deposit to cover the credit risk of his counterparty. ... Silver Thursday was 27 March 1980 when the American brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt, seeking to corner the silver markets, were unable to meet a margin call on their futures contracts. ... Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Petroleum (from Greek petra – rock and elaion – oil or Latin oleum – oil ) or crude oil is a thick, dark brown or greenish liquid. ...

The collapse of Barings Bank, then the oldest merchant bank in the UK was largely due to Nick Leeson's illegal attempt to prop up the Nikkei Index, building up a huge long position. Another recent example was that of Yasuo Hamanaka, who in 1996 attempted to corner the copper market, resulting in a loss of 1.8 billion dollars for the Sumitomo Corporation and an eight year prison sentence for Hamanaka. Barings Bank, previously known as Baring Brothers & Co. ... Nicholas Leeson (English, born February 25, 1967) was formerly a derivatives trader; his unsupervised speculative trading caused the collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdoms oldest investment bank. ... In finance, a long position in a security, such as a stock or a bond, or equivalently to be long a security, means the holder of the position owns the security. ... Yasuo Hamanaka was the chief copper trader at Sumitomo Corporation- one of the largest trading companies in Japan - and was also known as Mr. ... Sumitomo Corporation (住友商事, Sumitomo Shōji) TYO: 8053 is a highly built worldwide trading company (Sogo shosha), and is a diversified corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ...

In the News

On June 28, 2006 the SEC ruled that BP traders illegally cornered the U.S. propane market, creating price spikes that affected some seven million households.[1] June 28 is the 179th day of the year (180th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 186 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... SEC is a TLA which can refer to: In general context, an abbreviation for second. ... BP plc (LSE: BP, NYSE: BP, TYO: 5051 ), originally British Petroleum, is a British energy company with headquarters in London, one of five vertically integrated private sector oil, natural gas, and petrol (gasoline) supermajors in the world, along with Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Total. ...

See also

• Silver as an investment