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. March 27 is the 86th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (87th in Leap years). ... 1980 (MCMLXXX in Roman) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Nelson Bunker Hunt (born February 22, 1926 in Dorado, Arkansas) is an American businessman. ... In business, cornering the market is an illegal attempt to buy up enough of a particular commodity to allow the price to be manipulated. ... 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. ... 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 set price specified on the last trading date. ...

The brothers were two of the fourteen children of the Texas oil magnate H. L. Hunt, who was the richest man in the United States when he died in 1974. 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. When silver prices slid, the Hunt brothers failed to meet huge margin calls on their futures contracts, sparking a panic on commodity and futures exchanges. A consortium of US banks provided a USD$1.1 billion line of credit to enable the brothers to pay their debts. The Hunts lost hundreds of millions of dollars through their speculation in silver but the family fortunes withstood the setback. Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. ... It has been suggested that Hedging be merged into this article or section. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A futures exchange, or futures and options exchange is a corporation or mutual organization which provides the facilities to trade futures contracts and options. ... Speculation involves the buying, holding, and selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives or any valuable thing to profit from fluctuations in its price as opposed to buying it for use or for income ( via dividends, interest etc). ...

References

• Silver Thursday definition