One hedge fund bought a year's worth of cocoa for the UK

A closer look

One single hedge fund successfully cornered the world's chocolate supply. In 2010, Anthony Ward of Armajaro Holdings purchased enough raw cocoa beans to supply the entire UK for a year, hoarding it in European warehouses. By utilizing food futures market speculation to artificially restrict physical supply, he forced food manufacturers to panic-buy at massively inflated prices, proving commodities markets are highly vulnerable to aggressive hoarding.