24 July 2010

COMMODITIES: Cornering The Market By Placing A $1 Billion Bet On Chocolate.

NYT/ JULIA WERDIGIER and JULIE CRESWELL/
     Brit Anthony Ward has bought enough cocoa to make more than 5 BILLION chocolate bars...costing $1 billion USD. Ward, 50, now controls 7% of the cocoa supply through his private investment firm Armajaro. His purchases have helped drive cocoa prices on the London market to a 30-year high. Some are angered by his moves to corner the market. The British news media calls Ward “Chocolate Finger." Ward reportedly profited with a similar cocoa squeeze in 2002. Financial regulators investigated then but their findings were never made public.