This Market Leviathan Dwarfs the Nasdaq Whale
Target-dated funds, with $2.3 trillion under management, are a force for stability. They still may have unhealthy effects.
Watch out for the big fish.
Photographer: Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images
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When swimming in the waters of international capital markets, watch out for whales. After JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s infamous “London Whale,” who in 2012 took excessive positions in derivatives and suffered the cost when markets traded against him, this year has seen the “Nasdaq whale” load up on call options in tech stocks. The image of whales thrashing about in a bath of water can accurately capture what happens in a small market when a big player takes too big a position.