List of trading losses - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The following contains a list of trading losses of the equivalent of USD100 million or higher. Due to the secretive nature of many hedge fund

Hedge fund

A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...

s and fund managers, some notable losses may never be reported to the public. The list is ordered by the real

Real interest rate

The "real interest rate" is the rate of interest an investor expects to receive after allowing for inflation. It can be described more formally by the Fisher equation, which states that the real interest rate is approximately the nominal interest rate minus the inflation rate...

amount lost, starting with the greatest.

This list includes both fraudulent and non-fraudulent losses, but excludes losses associated with Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme

Ponzi scheme

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...

which is estimated in the $50 billion range because Madoff did not lose the majority of this money in trading.

#	Nominal Amount Lost	USD FX Rate at time of loss	USD Equivalent at time of loss	USD Inflation to 2007	Real Amount Lost	Company	Source of Loss	Year	Person(s) associated with incident
1	USD 9 bn	1	USD 9 bn
USD 8.67 bn		Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....	Credit Default Swaps	2008
2	EUR 4.9 bn	1.473	USD 7.22 bn
USD 6.95 bn		Société Générale Société Générale Société Générale S.A. is a large European Bank and a major Financial Services company that has a substantial global presence. Its registered office is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, while its head office is in the Tours Société Générale in the business district of La...	European Index Futures	2008
3	USD 6.5 bn	1	USD 6.5 bn	2.8%	USD 6.69 bn	Amaranth Advisors Amaranth Advisors Amaranth Advisors LLC was an American investment adviser managing multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Nicholas Maounis and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. The firm had up to $9 billion in assets under management and collapsed in September 2006 after losing in excess of $5 billion on...	Gas Futures	2006
4	USD 4.6 bn	1	USD 4.6 bn	27.2%	USD 5.85 bn	Long Term Capital Management	Interest Rate and Equity Derivatives	1998
5	JPY 285 bn	108.78	USD 2.62 bn	32.1%	USD 3.46 bn	Sumitomo Corporation Sumitomo Corporation Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest worldwide trading company , and is a diversified corporation. Sumitomo is headquartered in the Harumi Island Triton Square Office Tower Y in Chūō, Tokyo, Japan...	Copper Futures	1996
6	BRL 4.62 Bn	1.833	USD 2.52 Bn ;
USD 2.43 bn		Aracruz Aracruz Aracruz Celulose S.A. was the major Brazilian manufacturer of pulp and paper. In 2009 the company merged with VCP and renamed Fibria...	FX Options	2008	, Rafael Sotero
7	USD 2 bn	1	USD 2 bn
USD 1.83 bn		UBS	Equities ETF and Delta 1	2011
8	USD 1.7 bn	1	USD 1.7 bn	39.9%	USD 2.38 bn	Orange County Orange County, California Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...	Leveraged bond investments	1994
9	DEM 2.63 bn	1.655	USD 1.59 bn	43.5%	USD 2.28 bn	Metallgesellschaft Metallgesellschaft Metallgesellschaft AG was formerly one of Germany's largest industrial conglomerates based in Frankfurt. It had over 20,000 employees and revenues in excess of 10 billion US dollars...	Oil Futures	1993
10	JPY 166 bn	111.08	USD 1.49 bn	43.5%	USD 2.14 bn	Showa Shell Sekiyu	FX Forwards	1993
11	JPY 1536 bn	102.18	USD 1.50 bn	39.9%	USD 2.09 bn	Kashima Oil	FX Forwards	1994
12	HKD 14.7 bn	7.786	USD 1.89 bn
USD 1.82 bn		CITIC Pacific CITIC Pacific CITIC Pacific is a Hong Kong-based conglomerate holding company headquartered in the CITIC Tower, Admiralty, Hong Kong. It is 58% owned by the state-owned Citic Group in Beijing and has shareholders around the world.-Business areas:...	Foreign Exchange Trading	2008
13	USD 1.8 bn	1	USD 1.8 bn
USD 1.74 bn		Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...	Derivatives	2008
14	GBP 827 mio	1.579	USD 1.31 bn	36.1%	USD 1.78 bn	Barings Bank Barings Bank Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office.-History:-1762–1890:Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the...	Nikkei Futures	1995
15	EUR 1.4 bn	0.923	USD 1.29 bn	20.4%	USD 1.56 bn	BAWAG BAWAG BAWAG is a bank in Austria. On October 1, 2005, it merged with the separate Österreichische Postsparkasse to form the "Bank für Arbeit und Wirtschaft und Österreichische Postsparkasse AG", shortened as BAWAG P.S.K..-History:BAWAG was founded in 1922 by the Austrian Chancellor Dr...	Foreign Exchange Trading	2000	, Helmut Elsner
16	USD 1.1 bn	1	USD 1.10 bn	36.1%	USD 1.50 bn	Daiwa Bank	Bonds	1995
17	USD .8 bn	1	USD .8 bn	82.5%	USD 1.46 bn	Soros Fund	SP 500 Futures	1987
18	EUR 0.75 bn	1.473	USD 1.10 bn
USD 1.06 bn		Groupe Caisse d'Epargne Groupe Caisse d'Epargne Groupe Caisse d'Epargne is a French semi-cooperative banking group, founded in 1818, with around 4700 branches in the country. The group is active in retail and private banking, as well as holding a significant stake in the publicly traded investment bank Natixis.-Operations:The group's most...	Derivatives	2008
19	BRL 2 bio	1.833	USD 1.09 bn
USD 1.05 bn		Sadia Sadia This Food Company was created in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Its headquarters are also located in the same city.Sadia S.A. is a major Brazilian food producer...	FX and Credit Options	2008	, Álvaro Ballejo
20	GBP 0.4 bn	1.638	USD 0.66 bn	29.2%	USD 0.85 bn	Morgan Grenfell	Shares	1997
21	USD 0.6 bn	1	USD 0.60 bn	39.9%	USD 0.84 bn	Askin Capital Management	Mortgage-Backed Securities	1994
22	EUR 0.60 bn	1.371	USD 0.82 bn	0.0	USD 0.82 bn	WestLB WestLB WestLB AG is a European commercial bank based in Düsseldorf in Germany which is partly owned by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The letters LB in the name stand for Landesbank. The Landesbanken are a group of state owned banks unique to Germany...	Common and Preferred Shares	2007
23	USD 0.69 bn	1	USD 0.69 bn	15.3%	USD 0.80 bn	AIB Allied Irish Banks Allied Irish Banks p.l.c. is a major commercial bank based in Ireland.AIB is one of the so called "big four" commercial banks in the state. The bank has one of the largest branch networks in Ireland; only Bank of Ireland fully rivals it. AIB offers a full range of personal and corporate banking... /Allfirst First Maryland Bancorp First Maryland Bankcorp was the holding company for the First National Bank of Maryland, acquired by Allied Irish Banks in 1997.In 1999 First Maryland Bankcorp merged with Dauphin Deposit Corporation to form Allfirst Financial....	Foreign Exchange Options	2002
24	DEM 0.47 bn	2.587	USD 0.18 bn	320.6%	USD 0.76 bn	Herstatt Bank Herstatt Bank Herstatt Bank was a privately-owned bank in the German city of Cologne. It went bankrupt on 26 June 1974 in a famous incident illustrating settlement risk in international finance....	Foreign Exchange Trading	1974
25	CAD 0.68 bn	1.066	USD 0.64 bn	0%	USD 0.64 bn	Bank of Montreal Bank of Montreal The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...	Natural gas derivatives	2007	David Lee, Kevin Cassidy
26	USD 0.55 bn	1	USD 0.55 bn	9.8%	USD 0.60 bn	China Aviation Oil (Singapore)	Oil Futures and Options	2004
27	CHF 0.63 bn	1.451	USD 0.43 bn	27.2%	USD 0.55 bn	Union Bank of Switzerland Union Bank of Switzerland Union Bank of Switzerland was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second...	Equity Derivatives	1998
28	USD 0.28 bn	1	USD 0.28 bn	82.5%	USD 0.51 bn	Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...	Mortgages (IOs and POs) Trading	1987
20	USD 0.28 bn	1	USD 0.28 bn	82.5%	USD 0.51 bn	State of West Virginia West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...	Fixed Income and Interest Rate Derivatives	1987
30	USD 0.35 bn	1	USD 0.35 bn	39.9%	USD 0.49 bn	Kidder Peabody	Government Bonds	1994
31	USD 0.4 bn	1	USD 0.40 bn	20.4%	USD 0.48 bn	Manhattan Investment Fund	Short IT stocks during the internet bubble	2000
32	EUR 0.30 bn	1.244	USD 0.37 bn	9.8%	USD 0.41 bn	Hypo Group Alpe Adria	Foreign Exchange Trading	2004
33
34	AUD 0.36 bn	0.854	USD 0.31 bn	9.8%	USD 0.34 bn	National Australia Bank National Australia Bank National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation and customers. NAB is ranked 17th largest bank in the world measured by market capitalisation...	Foreign Exchange Trading	2004	, Gianni Gray, Vince Ficarra & David Bulleen
35	EUR 0.30 bn	0.895	USD 0.27 bn	17.1%	USD 0.31 bn	Dexia Bank	Corporate Bonds	2001
36	USD 0.207 bn	1	USD 0.207 bn	43.5%	USD 0.30 bn	Codelco Codelco CODELCO is the Chilean state owned copper mining company formed in 1976 from the foreign owned copper companies that were nationalised in 1971. The headquarters are in Santiago and the seven-man board of directors is appointed by the President of the Republic...	Copper, silver, gold futures	1993
37	USD 0.16 bn	1	USD 0.16 bn	39.9%	USD 0.22 bn	Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....	Interest Rate Derivatives	1994
38	USD 0.2 bn	1	USD 0.20 bn	6.2%	USD 0.21 bn	State Reserves Bureau Copper Scandal State Reserves Bureau copper scandal The State Reserves Bureau Copper Scandal refers to a loss of approximately $200 million by a single trader for the State Reserve Bureau of China at the London Metal Exchange in 2005...	Copper Futures	2005
39	SEK 1230 mio	7.804	USD 0.15 bn
USD 0.143 bn		HQ Bank	Equity Derivatives	2010	, Mikael König
40	GBP 90 mio	1.638	USD 0.15 bn	29.2%	USD 0.19 bn	NatWest	Interest Rate Options	1997
41	USD 0.11 bn	1	USD 0.11 bn	39.9%	USD 0.15 bn	Cuyahoga County, Ohio Ohio Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...	Leveraged Fixed Income	1994
42	USD 0.14 bn	1	USD 0.14 bn
USD 0.13 bn		MF Global MF Global MF Global , formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-the-counter products such as contracts for difference , foreign exchange and spread betting. MF Global was...	Wheat Futures	2008
43	USD 0.12 bn	1	USD 0.12 bn
USD 0.12 bn		Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....	Credit-index options	2008	Matt Piper
44	USD 0.1 bn	1	USD 0.10 bn	15.3%	USD 0.12 bn	Riječka banka (Rijeka Bank)	Foreign Exchange Trading	2002
45	SEK 630 mio	6.585	USD 0.10 bn	0.0%	USD 0.10 bn	Carnegie Investment Bank Carnegie Investment Bank Carnegie Investment Bank AB is a Swedish financial services group with activities in securities brokerage, investment banking and private banking....	Equity Derivatives	2007

See also