Who let the oil market be manipulated?

For anyone who believes that speculation by energy traders explains at least a portion of the run-up in oil prices, the announcement that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating oil market ... some commodity trading exchanges to operate without oversight while others must report what's going [more...]

Date: 2008-05-30 15:51:47

Blog posts (120) | Videos (314)
 

Your New Year’s Trading Resolutions

Happy New Year to all.  It is that infamous time to make resolutions — and more importantly keep them right? ... to finally achieve the results you’ve been working so hard for in your forex trading, futures trading ... points ($1,010/contract) Crude Oil Futures: 14 Wins - 4 Losses +2.68 ($2,680/contract) EURUSD Forex [more...]

Date: 2009-01-03 18:47:20

Olbermann Blames McCain for Bipartisan Clinton-signed 'Enron Loophole'

Almost two years ago, NewsBusters wondered when media would begin reporting Enron's ties to higher oil and gas prices ... "Enron Loophole" created by the enactment of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Though ... trading, deregulation that lets speculators overwhelm trading in oil futures, those complicated [more...]

Date: 2008-06-20 14:38:34

Maryland’s Gensler finds a spot in Obama administration

Some Marylanders’ names have been tossed around as possibilities for posts in the Obama administration (i.e. former Rep. Wayne Gilchrest and Dr ... as his pick to head up the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC oversees $5 trillion in futures and options trading — oil and other commodities prices have been hot-button issues there this year [more...]

Date: 2008-12-18 18:11:06

Middle East Tension Pushes Crude Near $50; Oil Embargo Not Likely

Crude oil futures traded higher on Monday, even hitting a three-week high above $49 at one point during trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange ... spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said. Analysts and traders alike believe that the world is different today ... by the recent prices, traders are beginning to get a little worried now that the conflict has [more...]

Date: 2009-01-05 22:00:15

Samuelson on Why We Should (Not) Shoot the Speculators

Who are these offensive souls? Well, they often don’t fit the stereotype of sleazy high rollers: ... and producers of commodities to hedge. Airlines can lock in fuel prices by buying oil futures; farmers can lock ... generally don’t buy the physical goods, whether oil or corn. Instead, they trade “futures contracts,” [more...]

Date: 2008-07-01 15:26:38

The gas legislation we pass

By Kate Sheppard The House of Representatives took up a triumvirate of environment and energy-related bills today, ... Futures Trading Commission to exert tougher oversight of the oil futures markets. In a 402-19 vote ... or unreasonable fluctuations" in energy futures prices and trading activities that "prevent [more...]

Date: 2008-06-27 00:13:20

Obama goes after McCain, oil speculation

by John McCormick Sen. Barack Obama's campaign went on the offensive again today on energy related matters, charging that a co-chairman for Sen ... said the provision in law exempts some energy traders from regulation and thus prevents the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from fully overseeing the oil futures market and investigating cases [more...]

Date: 2008-06-22 18:55:46

Halliburton (HAL) lifted by oil futures surge

Halliburton (HAL) lifted by oil futures surge Posted Jun 6th 2008 1:57PM by Brent Archer Filed under: Analyst reports, Good news, Industry, ... are trading are trading higher today, after a Morgan Stanley analyst's prediction that oil could hit $150 a barrel in the next month sent oil futures soaring. If you think that the stock won't fall by too [more...]

Date: 2008-06-06 13:57:00

Shocker: Federal Regulators Conclude That Oil Speculators Not Responsible For High Gas Prices

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has released financial data indicating that commodities traders engaged in oil speculation have had little ... driving the future price of oil down. Commodity index funds also have a much smaller share ... of transactions worth billions of dollars between January and June of this year. Commodity futures [more...]

Date: 2008-09-15 14:50:11

Obama Hates Oil Speculators, Hearts Ethanol

Bloomberg reports that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is proposing new rules to increase government interven... err... oversight in energy markets. He wants to "require the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate trading in energy futures contracts and direct the commission to investigate ways [more...]

Date: 2008-06-23 16:04:51

Jet Fuel Premium Set to Fall

A bit of cheery news for beleagured airlines: jet fuel, which of late had traded at a considerable premium to heating oil, ... to heating oil futures, said Mike Busby, manager of oil and refined-products trading for Northville [more...]

Date: 2008-07-15 08:22:01

Got a tip for a post?: Email us | Anonymous form Get PEEK in your mailbox! ... , there's reason to think it could be a lot. And current law means that a lot of oil futures trading is done ... like then Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Enron was able to insert language into the Commodity Futures [more...]

Date: 2008-07-28 12:05:05

How Did The Price of Oil Get So High? And Why Is It Now So Low? The "Enron Loophole"

.fullpost{display:inline;}It's beginning to look like we've reached the bottom as far as gas prices go ... markets and run up energy prices. Olbermann called it "a legalized form of insider trading" which "lets speculators overwhelm trading in oil futures." The result? A huge increase in your energy [more...]

Date: 2008-11-29 17:39:00

DrumBeat: July 22, 2008

Peak Oil and Hunger Diesel farming feeds the world. But what happens if the fuel becomes too expensive for the farmers? Listen in to WYPR 88 ... , unwanted homes and few options. Huge oil trading loss sinks energy trader SemGroup NEW YORK — A $3.2-billion (U.S.) trading loss on oil futures [more...]

Date: 2008-07-22 13:13:12

The Best of 2008: A year not to be forgotten

It’s the end of 2008 and many traders are saying “Good ridance!” To them I say be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it ... R? Understanding Open Interest in Futures and Options Trading Crude Oil Prices and the Economic Stimulus ... in the markets. Now, of course, the complaint is about too much. Funny how the pendulum swings like that, [more...]

Date: 2008-12-31 13:54:33

James Bianco on Possible Role of SemGroup Bankruptcy in Oil Price Drop

James Bianco, a respected fixed income analyst at Arbor Research, ... , down $5 on the day. Traders sold oil futures as news emerged that tropical storm Dolly was set to miss ... billion loss on July 16 after it transferred its New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures trading [more...]

Date: 2008-07-23 19:39:00

Crude Oil Industry Headline News

"Crude Oil Up But Seesaws On Gaza, Russia, Dollar"U.S ... forward curve of futures contracts traded on the New York....Complete Story"Iran Says OPEC to Hold ... . crude oil futures edged upbut trading seesawed on Monday as a stronger dollar brought prices down [more...]

Date: 2009-01-05 16:14:00

Don't Blame the Speculators; Without Futures Markets, Oil Might Be At $200 Instead of $135

Excerpts below from the Fortune Magazine article "Don't Blame the Oil Speculators: ... former U.S. Commodities Futures Trade Commission chief economist Gerald Gay. "No, they're clueless ... Misunderstanding of How Futures Markets Work": Here's a suggestion: The next time a Congressional committee [more...]

Date: 2008-06-28 02:03:05

Get Ready For $2 Gas as Fuel Prices Continue to Rise

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline posted their seventh consecutive gain on Tuesday, ... to data from the Department of Energy. Futures traders were also worried about potential fallout ... gasoline prices generally lag beind oil futures which traded above $50 a barrel today, up from below $32 [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 18:18:07

The case for oil price speculation improves

U.C. San Diego economist Jim Hamilton has long argued that fundamental forces of supply and demand explain oil prices better than "speculation ... by David Cho, "A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading." Hamilton closed his dissection ... recently deemed by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to be more of a speculator than [more...]

Date: 2008-08-27 16:28:48

CFTC Report on High Oil Prices - "Speculation My A$$"

With a pending Senate vote on the "Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act", it seems that we (not the TOD 'we', but the collective society 'we') ... . In this report, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), threw cold water on the recent ... , activity on the crude oil futures market – as measured by the number of contracts outstanding, trading [more...]

Date: 2008-07-23 14:47:59

How Main Street Will Quickly Feel The Fallout From Wall Street

In case you didn't think you'd feel the effects of the Wall Street meltdown in the short-term, you would be wrong: ... as investors dashed into commodities on concerns about the government’s plan to bail out the financial system. After a wild last hour of trading, crude oil futures surged as high as $130 a barrel before [more...]

Date: 2008-09-22 23:48:06

Crude Oil Contango, And Not A Tanker To Be Found

Crude oil is currently in contango as futures are trading at a significant premium to spot prices (see WSJ article). As of yesterday's close, spot prices were around $43 a barrel as May futures were trading near $50 a barrel. Unfortunately, to profit from the difference, you need to store the crude somewhere, yet [more...]

Date: 2009-01-09 14:52:52

SPECULATORS ARE NOT DRIVING UP OIL PRICES, REPORT SAYS

As Congress debates how to curtail the role of speculators and rein in rising oil prices, ... report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with help from six other agencies, including ... offer investors a future return linked to commodity markets, were roughly balanced between purchases [more...]

Date: 2008-07-25 13:21:56

Green Ink: Detroit’s Electric Dance, and Google’s Dirty Searches

paper Crude oil futures slumped to $38 in early trading Monday amid fears that lower OPEC production won’t be enough to counter cratering global demand for oil, Bloomberg reports. With oil prices (and valuations) falling, Exxon is sitting ... profiles “Bidder 70,” the environmental activist who waylaid the Utah oil-and-gas lease auction [more...]

Date: 2009-01-12 16:14:00

Middle East Tension Pushes Crude Near $50

Crude oil futures traded higher on Monday, even hitting a three-week high above $49 at one point during trading on the New York Mercantile ... now that the conflict has entered its tenth day. Heavy clashes were reportedly taking place between Israel Defense [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 15:07:36

Bush Ends Executive Ban on Off-Shore Drilling and Oil Prices Drop 7% in two trading sessions

June 20, 2008 — USA Today: Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign released remarks he plans to make at the start of a news conference in ... of futures trading in commodities. – WLS ... on July 14 — $145.18. Price of oil at close on July 16 — $134.60. “Crude-oil futures tumbled $4.14 [more...]

Date: 2008-07-17 00:34:34

Oil speculation bigger than we knew

by Frank James For the past few months as oil-futures prices were breaking records with a barrel of oil topping out around $150, ... ' influence. Last month, the main U.S. regulator of commodities trading, the Commodity Futures Trading [more...]

Date: 2008-08-15 20:09:58

Stopping Oil Manipulation

This morning on Money for Breakfast Commissioner Bart Chilton of the CFTC joined me to discuss yesterday’s charges against Optiver for manipulating ... for futures trading in oil as well as many more commodities), the right to oversee over the counter trading [more...]

Date: 2008-07-25 19:22:22

Oil Set for Rebound as Record Drop Spurs OPEC Cuts (Update1)

BLOOMBERG Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) ... be turning around.” Crude futures averaged $100 this year, the highest since oil began trading ... delivery traded at $40.22 a barrel, up 20 cents, in after-hours trading on the exchange at 8:43 [more...]

Date: 2008-12-30 00:44:12

Breaking on the Web: July 11, P.M. Edition

Updated 4:55 pm EDT EPA Decides Human Life Worth Less Today - Seth Borenstein, AP Retired Colonel Criticizes Iraq Strategies in Book - Yochi J ... Block Stricter Regulation of Oil-Futures Trading - Ian Talley, The Wall Street Journal ($) Capital [more...]

Date: 2008-07-11 20:35:07

What Can Onions Teach Us About Oil Prices?

Onions have no futures market, yet their recent price volatility makes the swings in oil and corn look tame ... in a commodity not in today's news: onions. The bulbous root is the only commodity for which futures trading is banned. Back in 1958, onion growers convinced themselves that futures traders were [more...]

Date: 2008-06-29 15:52:02

Oil Watch: Is it Time To Start Worrying About Crude Supplies Yet?

Crude oil futures closed up more than 4%, finishing New York trading above $48, as worries about oil supplies—such as OPEC’s production cuts and violence in the Middle East— ... an additional 2.2 million barrels of oil output. And the Gaza strip isn’t exactly an oil-producing region [more...]

Date: 2009-01-05 11:52:00

Vultures

Nothing to see here, just move along: Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses. But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol’s books last month, it found that the firm was in fact [more...]

Date: 2008-08-21 14:42:10

Oil Speculators. WP: Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses. But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ... of fuel. Even more surprising to the commodities markets was the massive size of Vitol's portfolio [more...]

Date: 2008-08-21 13:45:50

Study Shows Speculators Helped LOWER Oil Prices

It was said to be the year of speculators gone wild ... , the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has offered hard statistical data that financial trading hasn't ... -month period. In other words, index traders and swap dealers were driving the future price of oil [more...]

Date: 2008-09-17 15:39:38

Morning Brief: U.S. and Iraq nearing troop agreement

Morning Brief: U.S. and Iraq nearing troop agreement Thu, 08/21/2008 - 9:54am Top Story Khalid Mohammed - Pool/Getty Images U.S ... of speculators appear to rule the oil markets. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ... for the New York Times Magazine. Obama advisors Richard Clarke and Susan Rice slammed "quick-draw [more...]

Date: 2008-08-21 13:05:11

Deal Or No Deal...The Buck Is A Bust

Oil Curve Steeper Than '99 Shows Possible Gain in '09Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The steepest plunge in crude prices on record may be setting up oil investors for a rally this year, if history is any guide.The so-called forward curve of futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange suggests oil will rise 28 percent to $60 [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 01:28:00

Oil Scapegoat Update: CFTC Finally Finds Some Evil Speculators!

The Netherlands is known more for its bucolic landscapes, dotted with windmills and tulip beds, than for its connection to energy markets. But that's where the Commodities Futures Trading ... the CFTC launched its probe into irregularities in energy markets. FT: The Commodity Futures Trading [more...]

Date: 2008-07-24 18:13:00

ANWR's NOT the Answer: My letter to my Congressman

Dear Randy, Please remember that oil didn’t build America, and our Earth is fragile ... you to introduce and support legislation to halt the oil futures trade speculation now driving [more...]

Date: 2008-07-17 01:28:56

After the Bell Wrap-Up - January 8, 2009

The markets gave a valiant effort today to shrug off more disappointing economic news to trade higher, ... . In additional NYMEX trading, gasoline futures added $0.0118 to $1.0882 a gallon. Heating oil dropped [more...]

Date: 2009-01-08 21:10:00

As Per Astrology: Gold Will Be Safe Investment in 2009

Lt. Col. Ajay Jain, Commodity Online Leave the year 2008 behind and look for the future as the coming year is expected to bring good hopes for Asian ... and commodity markets. But hold on. The US and European economy may still suffer before it can rebound. Astro ... , this is right time for investment in crude oil for short term trading, since crude oil [more...]

Date: 2009-01-01 14:51:43

Oil Set for Rebound as Record Drop Spurs OPEC Production Cuts

By Grant Smith and Mark Shenk Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Oil futures may rebound from their worst year to average $60 a barrel next year as OPEC makes ... be turning around.” Crude futures averaged $100 this year, the highest since crude began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983. Oil plunged along with commodities from copper to corn [more...]

Date: 2008-12-30 00:25:00

Oil rises towards $40 on Israel-Hamas violence

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street was set to begin the final three days of 2008 trading with a modest gain, ... futures were all modestly higher. Trading was expected to be quiet, with many market participants ... 2% and Paris and Frankfurt up more than 1% in morning trading. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Tokyo's [more...]

Date: 2008-12-29 09:37:57

More speculation about those oil speculators

I normally leave it to folks like Dean Baker to beat up on the press ... their businesses. But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol's books last month ... in oil and a number of other commodity markets. The CFTC separates the holders of those contracts [more...]

Date: 2008-08-22 04:02:06

Oil Prices and Speculation

The Washington Post says the scale of speculative activity in commodities markets is larger than previous estimates indicated: A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading, by David Cho, Washington Post ... helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses. But when the Commodity Futures [more...]

Date: 2008-08-21 07:42:00

Jim Wyckoff’s Morning Blog–Tuesday

  Tuesday, January 6–Jim Wyckoff’s Morning Web Log OVERNIGHT/EARLY MORNING DEVELOPMENTS   The market feature in overnight/early morning trading today is a stronger U.S. dollar and firmer crude oil futures prices that have pushed back ... , the U.S. T-Bond market has suffered serious near-term technical damage to now suggest that a major [more...]

Date: 2009-01-06 13:13:28

Oil Traders: Don't Fence Us In

Investment bank and hedge fund representatives tell the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the oil market doesn't need more oversight [more...]

Date: 2008-06-17 00:51:19

Jim Wyckoff’s Morning Blog–Monday

  Monday, January 5–Jim Wyckoff’s Morning Web Log OVERNIGHT/EARLY MORNING DEVELOPMENTS   The market feature in overnight/early morning trading today is a stronger U.S. dollar and weaker crude oil futures prices. JIM’S MARKET THOUGHT OF THE DAY * I was able to get away from the office for a few days between the Christmas and New Year’ [more...]

Date: 2009-01-05 13:26:05

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