Business

World’s Top Oil Trader Hit by Massive Loss on Bets Gone Wrong

April 13, 2026 2,762 views 1 min read
World’s Top Oil Trader Hit by Massive Loss on Bets Gone Wrong

World’s Top Oil Trader Hit by Massive Loss on Bets Gone Wrong


The legendary derivatives trading team at Vitol Group, the world’s largest oil trader, has reportedly lost hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars on oil bets that went very wrong as the war in the Middle East roiled global markets and trapped physical supply at the Strait of Hormuz. Vitol’s star trader Yaoyao Liu found himself on the wrong side of bets on crude and fuel prices at the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, as prices soared in the worst disruption of global oil supply in history, the Wall Street Journal reports, quoting...