The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's busiest oil routes. When it was effectively closed at the end of February, large volumes of crude and refined products were left stuck in the Persian Gulf, and energy prices spiked.
The strait sits between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. A big share of the world's oil normally moves through it.
When that route is blocked, tankers cannot move, and prices start to swing.
In March, as the US war on Iran was still in its early phase, Glencore's board approved a temporary change. Traders were allowed to take on more risk than usual.
Glencore measures that risk with a number called value-at-risk, or VaR. It estimates how much money the company could lose on an ordinary day of trading.
That number can move even when nothing changes except the market. When prices swing violently, the potential daily loss rises, so VaR climbs automatically. That is why Glencore later said the bigger number came mostly from market volatility, not from a bigger appetite for risk.
The company's standard ceiling was $200 million. The waiver pushed that number to a peak of $456 million, more than double.
The extra risk had a payoff.
Get the free Always Be Buying eBook and learn the simple system for building wealth on any income
That is more than Glencore's full-year 2025 total. The trading arm's only better first half came in 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis.
Chief Financial Officer Steven Kalmin said the company stayed cautious even while it was taking on more risk. "Positionally, it was very conservative," he said.
He also said Glencore was risk-averse on the direction of oil prices. In other words, it was not betting that prices would go up or down.
It was simply trading around the market's chaos. That can be a good position when prices are swinging hard in both directions.
The extra risk was not a permanent shift. At the end of June, its VaR had dropped to $48 million, far below the $456 million peak.
The fast drop reinforced that message. The crisis moved oil markets, but it did not change the company's appetite for risk.
All of this matters beyond one trading desk. When the Strait of Hormuz closes, oil prices jump.
That jump shows up at the gas station and in your portfolio if you own energy stocks. Large traders with the nerve to take on extra risk can capture a lot of profit in a crisis.
But the window closes. Glencore's waiver lasted from March until late May, and risk fell back quickly once the panic cooled.
The bigger lesson is quieter: a huge profit from a volatile market does not always mean a company took a wild bet. Sometimes it just means the world was disrupted, and prices moved enough to make moving oil worth a lot more.
For investors, that is the part to remember the next time a headline about war makes energy prices swing. A company can earn a giant pile of cash in a messy market and still be playing it safe.
Download the free Always Be Buying eBook and start putting your money to work today
