Case Studies

Twelve failures worth understanding, from Barings to Archegos — each one a mechanism from the free catalogue taken to its conclusion, and most of them a hedge that worked until it had to be funded.

12 products, each with a five-step lesson, a worked example and a bank of twelve questions.

Case Studies is part of the OTC Learn subscription; the 36 products the app shipped with are free.

• Archegos, 2021 — Five banks, one position, and none of them could see it
• Amaranth, 2006 — A spread trade too large to leave
• The LME nickel squeeze, 2022 — A hedge that could not be delivered into
• The London Whale, 2012 — A hedge that grew into the market it was hedging
• The gilt LDI crisis, 2022 — Pension hedges that worked, and could not be funded
• Long-Term Capital Management, 1998 — Convergence trades, twenty-five times over
• Barings, 1995 — One trader, both sides of his own desk
• Société Générale, 2008 — Fictitious hedges, and a €4.9bn exit
• Orange County, 1994 — A conservative bond portfolio, borrowed three times over
• Ashanti Goldfields, 1999 — Seven years of production, sold forward
• Metallgesellschaft, 1993 — The right hedge, on the wrong clock
• The Swiss franc floor, 2015 — A guarantee withdrawn in a morning

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