Until a few days ago, only copper market cognoscenti had heard of Shanghai Chaos. But now the Chinese hedge fund is the talk of the metals trading world.
几天前，只有铜市老手才听说过上海混沌投资公司(Shanghai Chaos)。但如今，全球金属交易市场都在讨论这家中国对冲基金。
While it might sound like a 1980s pop band, the fund is believed to have been a key influence in this week’s precipitous fall in copper, according to people familiar with the situation.
该公司的名字听上去可能像是上世纪80年代的流行乐队，但据知情人士称，据信，该基金是本周铜价大幅下挫的主要推手。

Shanghai Chaos Investing Co is one of a coterie of funds exercising a growing impact on global metals markets, where the price of everything from aluminium drinks cans to lead batteries is set.
上海混沌投资公司是少数对全球金属市场发挥越来越大影响的基金之一，从铝制饮料罐到铅电池等各种金属的价格都在这个市场确定。
Their trading muscle was seen to spectacular effect on Wednesday when copper suffered its biggest one-day fall in three years. Aggressive selling of futures contracts by Chinese funds, first on the London Metal Exchange and then on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, sent copper to its lowest level since 2009.
这些基金的交易实力在周三产生惊人效应，当天铜价遭遇3年来最大单日跌幅。中国基金大举抛售期铜——先是在伦敦金属交易所(LME)，然后是在上海期货交易所(Shanghai Futures Exchange)——将铜价推低至自2009年以来的最低水平。
“If you think American traders are aggressive, these guys are three times as big and as fast and crazy,” said a senior trader. “It’s like they’re on speed.”
“如果你认为美国交易者大胆的话，那么这些人的规模、速度和疯狂程度是美国人的3倍，”一位资深交易员表示，“他们好像在加速。”
It is unclear how much money the funds made betting against copper on Wednesday or whether they have closed their bearish bets.
目前还不清楚，这些基金周三用多少资金押注于铜价下跌，也不清楚他们是否平掉了空头押注。
But traders said the assault was “beautifully” timed, coming at a time of jitters on commodity markets because of the collapse in the oil price.
但交易员表示，此次出手在时间上的选择堪称“漂亮”，当时由于油价大幅下跌，大宗商品市场出现恐慌情绪。
Shanghai Chaos, founded in 2005, is just one of the Chinese entities active in commodity markets. Others include Dunhe, run by Ye Qingjun, known as China’s George Soros for parlaying a Rmb100,000 mortgage on his home in 2003 into Rmb10bn ($1.6bn) through a bet on a bull market in soyabeans.
上海混沌成立于2005年，是活跃在大宗商品市场上的中国基金之一。其他还有由叶庆均管理的敦和(Dunhe)。2003年，叶庆均将房子抵押出去，获得10万元人民币贷款，通过押注大豆价格上涨，他将资产规模扩大到100亿元人民币（合16亿美元），他因此被称为中国的乔治•索罗斯(George Soros)。
The aggressive tactics employed by the Chinese funds can have an almost instant effect given the increasing presence of computer-based high-frequency traders that feed off their moves.
这些中国基金采用的激进投资策略可能会产生近乎即刻的效应，因为越来越多的基于电脑的高频交易员依赖它们的举措。
Similar to a sudden drop in March 2014, traders said Wednesday’s slide in copper showed how commodity prices are increasingly being influenced by China, the world’s biggest consumer of raw materials.
与2014年3月的一轮突然下跌类似，交易员表示，周三铜价下跌表明大宗商品价格正越来越多地受到全球最大原材料消费国中国的影响。
Edward Meir, futures broker at INTL FCStone, said: “It used to be that prices were set in Europe and the US and China would follow. Now the trend is moving toward Asia.”
INTL FCStone期货经纪人爱德华•米尔(Edward Meir)表示：“过去，价格由欧美确定，中国遵循。如今的趋势是转向亚洲。”
Dunhe said it did not comment on “things we trade”. Calls to Shanghai Chaos were not returned.
敦和表示，不会对“我们交易的内容”置评。记者致电上海混沌也未得到回复。