Because the size of the market was/is so small that you're actually able to corner it. Oil or Treasury futures are far too big that no single person could ever corner it.
replyThough the Hunt brothers made a pretty good run at the Silver market in 1980.
replyChina went all in on rare earth concentrate processing, taking the environmental hits that no one else wanted to touch.
replyThat paid off in a concentrated lock on the bulk of rare earth applications.