It may not be as sexy as gold and silver, but sometimes even doctor copper needs a little squeeze and corner love as well, and according to Bloomberg, that is precisely what someone is trying to do.
One company whose identity is unknown, is “hoarding as much as half the copper available in warehouses tracked by the London Metal Exchange.”
However, unlike the famous cornering of silver by the Hunts in 1980 which sent the price soaring if only briefly, in this case the unknown manipulator is trying to push the price of the physical lower. By taking control of half the available copper, the trader can help drive up the fees associated with rolling forward a short position, making it tougher for speculators to keep their bearish, explains Bloomberg.
Indeed, as shown in the chart below, this week the borrowing cost jumped to the highest in three years, almost as if someone is desperately trying to punish the shorts in a strategy very comparable to what Shkreli did with KBIO, when he bought up 70% of the outstanding stock and then made removed his shares from the borrowable pool, forcing a massive short squeeze.