Hedge funds lose court fight for LME disclosure of nickel crisis communications

A group of hedge funds lost their court fight to force the London Metal Exchange to hand over to hand over phone call transcripts and meeting notes about the LME's March decision to cancel trades, mining.com writes.  
AQR Capital Management LLC and four other firms petitioned the court in September. The firms are challenging moves by the LME, which cancelled about $3.9 billion worth of trades on March 8, when futures spiked 250% in a little over 24 hours during a massive squeeze centered around a large short position held by tycoon Xiang Guangda. The LME had also suspended the market for a week. 
“I am not satisfied” that the disclosure sought “would assist the dispute to be resolved without proceedings or would save costs,” judge Adrian Beltrami said in the ruling dismissing the applications by the firms. 
AQR Capital, along with DRW Commodities LLC, Flow Traders BV, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC, and Winton Capital Management Ltd., have alleged the trades were canceled to bail out the large investor holding short positions.
The ruling is a setback for the firms that lost a combined $95 million during few days. 
The LME’s lawyers had denied the allegations and said the exchange acted to avoid systemic risks from a $20 billion margin call that could have sent the market into a “death spiral” and threatened the LME’s own survival.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished