Vincent Boland: Fall of Archegos could change how the stock market is played

The collapse of the hedge fund, which built a $36 billion house of cards, may be one catalyst among many for the most sweeping reforms of the stock market in decades

Bill Hwang, founder of Archegos, is accused of propping up ‘a $36bn house of cards by engaging in manipulative trading, lying to banks to obtain additional capacity, and using that capacity to engage in still more manipulative trading’. Picture: Bloomberg

A bizarre little saga unfolded in the stock market just over a year ago, involving the collapse of a hedge fund known as Archegos Capital Management. Last week the saga became even more bizarre, and decidedly un-little, when the man who founded it, an investor named Bill Hwang, was arrested in New York by federal prosecutors on foot of criminal charges including fraud, stock price manipulation and racketeering.

The criminal case, and a separate civil ...