Something I posted earlier today on wsbets.win that nobody read:

We can't forget the Hunt brothers.

The inside story of how the Hunt brothers cornered the silver market

It's a saga that almost sounds fictional but it's the real-life story of two American wealthy brothers who cornered the silver market and caused the price of silver to rocket from $2 an ounce (all currency US) to more than $50 an ounce.

the silver futures market bottomed out by a third to $10.80. Around two months earlier, these contracts had been trading at four times that amount. The Hunts had put up oil and gas leases, real estate, coal leases, antiques, even a Mercedes and a Rolex, and lost them all, as the Seattle Times notes. The report adds: "A $180 million judgment against them pushed the Hunts into bankruptcy. All Bunker Hunt had left from his billions were a few million, a stable of racehorses and a $90 million tax bill to be paid over a 15-year period." In the words of then CFTC chief James Stone, as Priceonomics writes, the Hunts’ antics had threatened to blast a hole in the “financial fabric of the United States” like nothing had in decades. Writing about the entire episode a year later, Harper’s Magazine described Silver Thursday as “the first great panic since October 1929.”

How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All

But as the high prices persisted, new silver began to come out of the woodwork.

“In the U.S., people rifled their dresser drawers and sofa cushions to find dimes and quarters with silver content and had them melted down,” says Pirrong, from the University of Houston. “Silver is a classic part of a bride’s trousseau in India, and when prices got high, women sold silver out of their trousseaus.”

Unfortunately for the Hunts, all this new supply had a predictable effect. Rather than close out their contracts, short sellers suddenly found it was easier to get their hands on new supplies of silver and deliver.

“The main factor that has caused corners to fail [throughout history] is that the manipulator has underestimated how much will be delivered to him if he succeeds [at] raising the price to artificial levels,” says Pirrong. “Eventually, the Hunts ran out of money to pay for all the silver that was thrown at them.”

Of course, maybe there isn't any more silver hidden in the woodwork this time around. They can still change the rules of the game, though.

Even though the rules were changed, the Hunt brothers themselves played a large part in their demise.