The family office of former Tiger Management trader Bill Hwang was reportedly responsible for sell-offs of some US stocks on Friday, according to Bloomberg. Archegos Capital Management was forced by its banks to sell more than $20 billion worth of shares after some positions moved against him.
The trade frenzy saw Morgan Stanley liquidate about $13 billion in Farfetch Ltd., Discovery Inc., Baidu, and GSX Techedu Inc.
Goldman Sachs Group sold $6.6 billion worth in the shares of Baidu, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, and Vipshop Ltd. before the US market opened.
The trade frenzy also saw a $3.9 billion sale in ViacomCBS Inc. and iQiyi Inc. that triggered price swings for stocks involved in the high-volume transactions.
Although block trades, or the sale of large chunks of a stock at a price, are common, multiple blocks hitting the market on normal trading hours are rare.
In December 2012, Hwang admitted to illegally using inside information to trade the Chinese bank stocks and agreed to criminal and civil settlements of more than $60 million.
