The price of copper keeps going higher, another great example of the bull market in commodities and metals. Copper prices rose to yet another record high this week on the London Metal Exchange, as "speculation swirled about the identity of the trading house sitting on the large position at the LME which has been steadily rising since the middle of November," according to The Guardian.

We have previously reported that many participants assume the big buyer has been JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM); the speculation has been driven by the impending launch of an exchange traded fund backed by physical copper. But the bank has steadfastly denied that it is the horder, and more recent news reports have indicated that the big bank indeed is not the mystery owner.

The Guardian notes that a single entity owning this much of one commodity isn't necessarily a problem, as there are processes in place to deal with this. "To stop buyers cornering the market and manipulating the price, the rule is that once a trader has more than 50 percent, they are obliged to lend the metal back to the market, if the demand arises, at predetermined prices set by the LME," notes the newspaper. So in times of short supply "the LME stocks are often used as a source of material and in times of excess supply LME warehouses are used to store the metal."

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