Weeping investment boss apologises to clients after losing millions to oil market nosedive

James Cordier, the boss of OptionSellers, broke down in a 10-minute video apology. Photo/YouTube.

The boss of US financial firm has issued a teary video apology to his clients after a plunge in oil prices wiped out their investments.

James Cordier, the president of the firm OptionSellers, published the 10-minute apology to YouTube, telling his clients that his business had been taken out by a "rogue wave".

The wave he refers to is the sinking oil price, which has seen Brent fall under US$65 per barrel from a four-year high in early October over US$86.

While the fall in oil prices doesn't yet match the 2014-2016 slump to $26 per barrel, those who had placed big bets on oil will be hurting at the moment - among them Cordier.

"The events of this past week have been incredibly devastating for our clients," he said.

After apologising to a number of individual clients around the world, Cordier invokes the image of his father, an avid sailor, to explain what went wrong.

"I always talked about steering your investment like a boat", saying it was never a good thing to see the captain make big turns - this indicated that something went wrong.

"This rogue wave that I was unable to navigate has likely cost me my hedge fund - and the reason I had a hedge fund was because you are my clients."

He said that every day when he woke up he checked the market for rogue waves, but this one proved too much.

"I am so sorry," he says, "that I was unable to manage the rogue wave that hit us this week."

Watch full video:

In the video, Cordier says that he had 290 clients, but doesn't go into details about how much money was lost in the recent market rout.

The BBC, however, suggests the losses could exceed US$150 million, quoting Ohio lawyer Jason Albin who is currently working with around 80 clients on the issue.