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HOTLINE: Nickel trader profits from price crash on LME Select

A huge order to sell copper at 03:15 UK time on Thursday February 9 whacked London Metal Exchange markets very hard, with copper losing around 1.5% of its value in a matter of seconds.

February 10, 2012
By Generic people page
Base metals Copper

A huge order to sell copper at 03:15 UK time on Thursday February 9 whacked London Metal Exchange markets very hard, with copper losing around 1.5% of its value in a matter of seconds. 

The price crash also created the trade of the year so far for a nickel merchant.

He left a sell order on the LME’s electronic trading platform at $22,000 per tonne and a buy order at $21,215.

At 03:15:48, his sell order was filled; five seconds later he covered at $21,215, netting him $785 per tonne.

If he could trade that profitably all the time, he would make $4.4 million a minute or $371 billion a year, he reckoned.
 
Alex Harrison 
aharrison@metalbulletin.com
Twitter: @alexharrison_mb

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