Extending on our observation earlier this week that the record surge in commodities, such as nickel, would - ironically - cripple producers who despite being long physical commodities in the spot market are also short in the futures market as a hedge, and it is these hedges that are causing unprecedented waterfalls of cascading short squeezes at this moment as producers scramble to find the cash to satisfy variation margins...

... earlier this week we learned that Chinese nickel titan Tsingshan Holding Group, the world's largest producer of the metal, controlled by Xiang Guangda - known as "Big Shot", or is that "Big Short" - faced billions of dollars in trading losses after Russia's war in Ukraine set off an unprecedented rise in the price of nickel, and which soared by a record 250% in two days.