In finance, to corner the market is to get sufficient control of a particular stock, commodity, or other asset to allow the price to be manipulated. Another definition: "To have the greatest market share in a particular industry without having a monopoly. Companies that have cornered their markets usually have greater leeway in their decisions; for example, they may charge higher prices for their products without fear of losing too much business. Large companies, such as Wal-Mart or Microsoft, are considered to have cornered their markets. " In either case, the cornerer hopes to gain control of enough of the supply of the commodity to be able to set the price for it. This can be done through several mechanisms. The most direct strategy is to simply buy up a large percentage of the available commodity offered for sale in some spot market and hoard it. With the advent of futures trading, a cornerer may buy a large number of futures contracts on a commodity and then sell them at a profit after inflating the price. Although there have been many attempts to corner markets by massive purchases in everything from tin to cattle, to date very few of these attempts have ever succeeded; instead, most of these attempted corners have tended to break themselves spontaneously. Indeed, as long ago as 1923, Edwin Lefèvre wrote, "very few of the great corners were profitable to the engineers of them. " A cornerer can become vulnerable due to the size of the position, especially if the attempt becomes widely known. If the rest of the market senses weakness, it may resist any attempt to artificially drive the market any further by actively taking opposing positions. If the price starts to move against the cornerer, any attempt by the cornerer to sell would likely cause the price to drop substantially. In such a situation, many other parties could profit from the cornerer's need to unwind the position.
Purchasing power is the number of goods/services that can be purchased with a unit of currency. For example, if you had taken one dollar to a store in the 1950s, you would have been able to buy a greater number of items than you would today, indicating that you would have had a greater purchasing power in the 1950s. Currency can be either a commodity money, like gold or silver, or fiat currency, or free-floating market-valued currency like US dollars. As Adam Smith noted, having money gives one the ability to "command" others' labor, so purchasing power to some extent is power over other people, to the extent that they are willing to trade their labor or goods for money or currency.
1990s: Hamanaka and the copper marketRogue trader Yasuo Hamanaka, Sumitomo Corporation's chief copper trader, attempted to corner the international copper market over a ten year period leading up to 1996. [6] At one point during this "Sumitomo copper affair," Hamanaka is believed to have controlled approximately 5% of the world copper market. [6] As his scheme collapsed, Sumitomo was left with large positions in the copper market, ultimately losing US$2.6 billion. [7] In 1997 Hamanaka pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from his trading activity and was sentenced to an eight year prison sentence.2008: Porsche and shares in VolkswagenDuring the financial crisis of 2007-2010 Porsche cornered the market in shares of Volkswagen, which briefly saw Volkswagen become the world's most valuable company. [8] Porsche claimed that its actions were intended to gain control of Volkswagen rather than to manipulate the market: in this case, while cornering the market in Volkswagen shares, Porsche contracted with naked shorts—enabling it to perform a short squeeze on them. [9] It was ultimately unsuccessful, leading to the resignation of Porsche's chief executive and financial director and to the merger of Porsche into Volkswagen.2010: Armajaro and the European cocoa marketOn July 17, 2010, Armajaro purchased 240,100 tonnes of cocoa. The buyout caused cocoa prices to rise to their highest level since 1977. The purchase was valued at £658 million and accounted for 7 per cent of annual global cocoa production. The transaction, the largest single cocoa trade in 14 years, was carried out by Armajaro Holdings, a hedge fund co-founded by Mr Anthony Ward. Ward, the manager of the hedge fund, has been dubbed "Chocfinger" by fellow traders for his exploits. The nickname is a reference to both the Bond villain Goldfinger as well as a British confection.2011: Oil and hedge fundsAll of the above examples had effects that were limited to niche markets. This opens up the question about the possibility of cornering one of the markets for strategic commodities that are fundamental to all economies around the world. In Summer 2011 Jim Cramer drew the public's attention to a corner of the oil market.the cartel of nonconsumers who are using oil futures as part of an investing strategy that includes endless attempts to corner the market for crudes in order to make fortunes for them. that's what they did in 2008 when they cornered it and took it to $147. we know the futures markets are thin for oil. almost all the execs on the show confirm to me these futures are unreliable and easily manipulated. the price can be the benchmark for real commerce, meaning they can make a lot of money so long as no one seeks to bust the cartel price.While Cramer points out frankly that this is a corner (calling into question the proper working of the free market), official sources avoid calling this situation a corner. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy explained it would release million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and called this a warning shot to speculators in the oil market