Lone trader caused 100 dollar price for oil

[villager]

Source: AFP

Lone trader caused 100 dollar price for oil



NEW YORK (AFP) - A lone trader out to win a little fame made the purchase that took oil prices to the historic 100 dollars a barrel level this week but he lost 600 dollars on the deal, analysts said.

The trader has been named by US and British media as Richard Arens who runs a one man oil brokerage, ABS.

"The magic figure was hit apparently on the back of a single trade, rumoured to be a local intent on fame," Sucden analysts wrote in a commentary Thursday on the record breaking deal.

Arens offered 100,000 dollars on the New York market on Wednesday for 1,000 barrels of oil, producing the much talked of 100 dollars per barrel which sparked anguish across the financial markets.

He later sold on the contract for slightly below 100 dollars, taking a 600 dollar loss.

"It was just for the form; he wanted to be the first in the world to buy oil at 100 dollars," said Antoine Heff, an analyst at NewEdge.

The new price record came as a shock to the markets although many had been saying 100 dollars was inevitable at some point given strong demand and supply constraints.

Oil slipped back slightly but hit 100 dollars again on Thursday.

<snip>


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080104/ts_alt_afp/commoditiesoilpriceoffbeat

[xultar]

1. I need a location so I can book a flight. I'll only bring my ass whoopin bag as carry on.

[hobbit709]

2. You'll have to get in line

:rofl:
It's liable to be a LOOONG line.

[lapfog_1]

3. He only lost $600 on a thousand barrel trade...

so someone else bought the oil for $99.40 (at the minimum). So oil is at $99.40 or $99.10 or $98.45 a barrel, not $100... big deal. It's just a number. A number very near $100.

It's not like oil was at $32/barrel and this guy, all by himself, jacked up the price to $100/barrel.

We have Bush/Cheney for that.

[DS1]

11. Exactly, the point is that it was close enough for one guy to bump it up

to $100. The cartels were happy keeping it as close to but not over 100 as possible.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. Here you go. Let me help you pack.

[Teaser]

14. You win the thread

.

[shain from kane]

4. I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum.

[xultar]

5. TRUE DAT.

[BootinUp]

6. I wish he had gone for 200 a barrel. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Isn't interesting that the price of gasoline rose $.13 a gallon here (sitting in the gas station's

storage tanks) because a barrel of oil briefly traded for $100?

[villager]

8. Exactly. Price has nothing to do with what the vendor paid for the gas. Only the psychology

...of what the customer allows, gouging-wise.

[onehandle]

9. Uh...Pretty sure George W. Bush caused $100 a barrel oil.

Let's see...

1) Failed to protect us on 9/11

2) Started illegal endless war

3) Direct representative of Big Oil in all matters pertaining to oil profits

Yep, It was Bush.

[villager]

10. well, there's that, too.

;-)

[hack89]

12. Don't you think that demand in China and India contributed? nt

[villager]

15. as well. Plus the American appetite remaining essentially undiminished.

n/t

[hack89]

16. It gets more unappetizing every time I pay off my gas card. nt

[villager]

17. that's for sure. I'm here in L.A., so the "non-use" of gas requires more strategizing.

n/t

[sarcasmo]

33. Cutting up my gas card and selling one of our two cars. Going with one car which means only one to

Fill up.

[SyntaxError]

23. Sure, pass the blame onto the brown people.

[hack89]

27. You are kidding , right?

or are you so out of touch with what's going on in the world? How you you think they can be two of the largest as well as fastest growing economies in the world without a corresponding growth in energy consumption?

It takes a unique mind to spin economic reality into racism. :eyes:

[SyntaxError]

30. of course I'm kidding...

I sometimes behave badly when I...err..breathe.

[hack89]

34. OK - I sometimes have the same problem. nt

[Betty]

19. how about cheney's "secret" meeting back years ago

to work on "energy policy"? The meeting with the oil executives that he won't disclose what was discussed? How much you want to bet that this was what they had planned all along?

[cstanleytech]

28. Would not surprise me.

To make the circle complete though all we need for Cheney to say is "I am not a crook".

[Javaman]

18. So what I am to be pissed about...

some dope that wanted a little fame or a market that is so fucked up that people can manipulate the market, kill people in the wallet and not give a shit.

welcome the dumbass ego centric morally corrupt corporate mentality, were jerks do shit because they can and damn all others.

[dweller]

21. Doesn't matter that 'they' hate us

as long as we hate each other, now does it?

dp

[Earth_First]

20. So the Wall Street boys play Ivy League fraternity pranks at work...

and I pay for it at the pump?

Go fuck yourself!

[tabasco]

22. It was going to hit $100 anyway.

He just wanted to be first.

[SyntaxError]

24. I think he personally had very little affect.

It's like if a building was about to collapse any minute and then some asshat ran up and pulled a brick out right before it happened... or something like that.

[Supersedeas]

35. it's just a game to them and to pundits like Matthews

[CONN]

25. Don't underestimate these guys -- remember Enron...

As Public Citizen reported, "Because of Enron’s new, unregulated power auction, the company’s 'Wholesale Services' revenues quadrupled—from $12 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $48.4 billion in the first quarter of 2001."

In one January 2001 telephone tape of an Enron trader the public utility identified as Bill Williams and a Las Vegas energy official identified only as Rich, an agreement was made to shut down a power plant providing energy to California. The shutdown was set for an afternoon of peak energy demand.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron#California.27s_deregulation_and_subsequent_energy_crisis
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Blind_Faith.PDF

[MadMaddie]

26. What's really shocking is that one insignificant guy caused the

entire stock market to react.

This is a warning...

Warning...Warning Will Robinson!

[tom_paine]

29. That is the happiest load of MSM misinformation/disinformation distraction with a grain of truth

horseshit I have heard...this year.

The "Lone Trader" theory is laughable, and yet I am ceratin it is technically true.

Meaningless, and lacking the information necessary to put it into context, but technically true.

The Bushies certainly have perfected the science of lying, of Plausible Deniability.

[Historic NY]

31. He needs a good ass whooping and some DUing..........

We should show him the love. Were paying because this little shithead wanted to get his kicks. Our Congress was supposed to pass a law that closes the ENRON loophole but so far they have done nothing. Again the American people get the shaft.

http://www.senate.gov/~levin/newsroom/release.cfm?id=283456

[daleo]

32. So much for peak oil

It was all this guy's fault.

Yeah, right.