Remember when oil price futures, specifically the April contract for West Texas Intermediate, lifeblood of the Permian and of Cushing, Oklahoma, went negative at the end of April? Well, a few people made a helluva killing on that. Here's their story. Part of the "fun" of this all is seeing petrobillionaires (well, he used to be, at least) like Harold Hamm bitch about "market manipulation" when that's exactly how capitalism is supposed to work, isn't it, homeboy?
AND, given that the nine traders who pull this off are associated with a London trading house, it's questionable how much US oversees can punish them, if they deem then needing of punishment.
The bigger yet issue, as I see it, is that US oil futures trading isn't transparent, and to the degree that it's regulated, it's designed to protect the Harold Hamms of the world from the George Soroses of oil, or however we put it. In other words, it's OK for an actual Soros to break Southeast Asian oil currencies, but by god and by Texas, NOBODY had better tamper with the American awl bidness.
This:
It’s also illegal in the U.S. to place trades during or before the settlement with “intentional or reckless disregard” for the impact.
Is the nutgraf for that observation. In other words, the US oil futures market is a sort of cartel.
That said, it's not just oil. Gas, and cattle and several other commodities also have "trade at settlement" settings. But, none of them, as far as I know, have the settlement date equivalent of having to take physical possession, or metaphysical possession, of 1,000 barrels of crude at Cushing, nor do any of them have the equivalent of a Cushing storage problem. When's the last time you've heard of a crush of cows or hogs causing feedlots to run out of space?
It's the same issue as the Dow Jones removing an Exxon or GE because it loses some luster. It's all about capitalism propping itself up while patting itself on the back.
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