Merrill Lynch Sued Over Alleged Spoofing in Precious Metals (2)

Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Commodities unit and Morgan Stanley were sued by a group of traders that claims the companies used a tactic known as spoofing to manipulate the market for precious metals futures.

The suit by Gamma Traders-I LLC and Vega Traders LLC was filed a day after Merrill Lynch agreed to pay $36.5 million to settle claims by U.S. officials that its commodities division manipulated the price of precious-metals futures over a six-year period. From 2008 to 2014, certain traders would place orders they didn’t intend to execute in order to move prices, according to the ...