the chinese are about to learn the hard lesson of crony capitalism - watch the market purposely screw them with their short position (if indeed they actually have one). and the trader...he is as good as dead. They will probably put a bullet in his head and then bill his family for the price of the bullet like they did to that poor bastard who stood in front of the tanks in Tiannemen 1989.
Other possibility is that those Chinese guys are really clever.. they want to sell copper, make everyone believe they are short so prices run up, which enables them to sell their stock at a good price
that would be the masterstroke wouldn't it - the ultimate contrarian market control. Talk the market down so that it actually goes up and you can spank it at the higher price.
you hit it on the nail. 550 m in deriative loss for china aviation oil(singapore) http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=ahClS4487AlE&refer=europe
the western world learned lessons from the east centuries ago. if anything, the chinese know price manipulation. they invented it, like the noodle and the concept of bathing.
the government of Japan has done the above for years especially 3years ago..the controlled the jpy/usd by jawing every night of possible intervention. the ultimate market control is the USA constant government intervention. w
exactly. the chinese invented the concept of the (rice) exchange in bc times - before europe became civilized, and when america wasnt even a twinkle in some mr paddy & ms giovannis eye!! i wonder if it was a copper bullet that made poor old liu qibing go 'missing'?? shoot, didn't that guy even chack his ma's? didnt anyone tell him china is buying the earths commodities not selling? was this a fat fingers error, the mother of all peking crispy black swan in hoi sin sauce if you will. and i thought these institutional traders were supposed to be on the ball!
The Financial Times today cited a friend of the trader as saying the trader has been asked not to come to work so he is cooling his heels at his flat in Shanghai. The professional futures market is relatively small and quite tight in China - I would take the source as reliable.
The Japanese had the first futures markets in the 17th century. In addition, their market rules were essentially exactly the same as today's futures market rules: fixed contract sizes and end dates; only members allowed to trade directly on the exchange; all members required to clear all trades through one clearing house. Perhaps the cultural traits that created the world's first futures markets were the same as those that created the richest race in world history.