20 biggest trading losses in history

It’s hard to believe that with only 3% of the world’s stock market capitalization, two of the three largest international trading losses of the past half decade came to pass here in our own backyard. Here’s a complete list of “the Top 20 trading disasters” (hat tip Bloomberg via Canaccord)…

Société Générale
2008 Lost 4.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) before taxes after trader went beyond permitted limits on European stock index futures

Bank of Montreal
2007 Wrong-way bets on natural gas led to a pre-tax loss of about $680 million

Amaranth Advisors LLC
2006 Trader Brian Hunter’s bad bets on natural gas triggered $6.6 billion of losses

Refco Inc.
2005 Declared bankruptcy after hiding $430 million of debt

China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp.
2004 Lost $550 million on speculative oil-futures trades, forcing debt restructuring

Allied Irish Banks Plc
2002 Trader hid $691 million in currency market losses

Plains All American Pipeline LP
1999 Lost $160 million because of unauthorized crude-oil trading by an employee

Long-Term Capital
1998 Lost $4 billion after a debt Management default by Russia

Peregrine Investments Holdings Ltd
1998 Collapsed from at least $300 million of debt bought from insolvent companies

National Westminster Bank Plc
1997 Disclosed $125 million charge to cover options-trading loss

Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
1996 Fired fund manager Peter Young for unauthorized trading and paid $279 million to bail out investors

Sumitomo Corp.
1996 Disclosed a $2.6 billion loss on unauthorized copper trades by Yasuo Hamanaka

Daiwa Bank
1995 Disclosed a $1.1 billion loss from unauthorized trades

Barings Plc
1995 Collapsed after trader Nick Leeson racked up $1.4 billion in losses

Orange County, California
1994 Lost $1.7 billion from debt and derivatives used to expand its investment fund

Kidder Peabody & Co.
1994 Took a $210 million charge to reflect what it said were false bond trading profits by trader Joseph Jett

Codelco
1994 Trader Juan Pablo Davila lost more than $200 million speculating on copper

Metallgesellschaft AG
1993 Lost more than $1.5 billion trading oil futures contracts

Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
1990 Filed for bankruptcy after pleading guilty to charges of insider trading and stock manipulation

Merrill Lynch & Co.
1987 Mortgage trader accused of racking up $377 million loss in unauthorized trades.

MRM