Bill Hwang Archegos Catastrophe Was Wilder Than Anyone Knew (1)

“Are we going to be able to pay for these trades today? I don’t see how we can.”

The deputy’s words, now immortalized in a federal indictment, said it all: Inside Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management, panic was setting in. Hwang, the enigmatic billionaire behind Archegos, had amassed one of the world’s great fortunes in virtual secrecy, and that trove -- a staggering $160 billion position in stocks -- was unraveling everywhere, all at once.

That was March 23, 2021 -- and Wall Street had no idea what was about to go down.

A year after the collapse of ...