Leveraged Blowout: How Hwang’s Archegos Blindsided Global Banks

Shares of the “old media” company shot up almost 300% in weeks, and small investors were abuzz with theories: It’s undervalued, like GameStop! It’s a takeover target!

Inside Wall Street’s top trading firms, however, some executives had an idea of what caused the move. A trading whale -- Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management -- was building a massive position in ViacomCBS Inc.

Banks around the world kept giving Hwang the leverage he needed to acquire more and more of the stock. What they couldn’t see, according to people with knowledge of the situation, was the full extent of ...