What is Archegos – and why has it created such financial chaos?

The collapse of the hedge fund raises awkward questions, 12 years on from the financial crisis, about the culture within global financial institutions and the adequacy of their regulation, says Ben Chu

As the ‘family office’ of a hedge fund veteran called Bill Hwang, Archegos was not compelled to publish information on the size of its assets and liabilities (Fuller)

Late last week something big and rather disturbing occurred in the world’s financial markets.

Some giant global investment banks simultaneously started selling very large volumes of stocks in various firms, worth tens of billions of dollars.

The price of some major quoted companies in the US and China – including ViacomCBS, Discovery, Baidu and Tencent Music – slumped alarmingly as a result.