How exactly do you get bragging rights for being the guy who paid the most ever for a barrel of oil? When we first heard that a single, small trade had finally broken the $100 mark we were convinced it was a stunt, and possibly a prank. There were indications that the order might be a fugazi.
And, apparently, there was an early trade at $100 that turned out to be phony. But after an investigation by the NYMEX, it quickly became apparent that the trade was real. A guy trading on his own money bought 1,000 barrels of crude—the smallest trade allowed—from a colleague on the floor. (There are still whispers that these two arranged the trade and agreed to kick back the excess profit but we’ve found no evidence of this.)
The Financial Times tags Richard Arens as the trader. He runs some sort of brokerage called ABS. We’ll give him this: off the floor of the NYMEX (and maybe on the floor) no-one had ever heard of him before. Or, you know, we certainly hadn’t. This is no slight to Arens—the oil traders who are household names are few and far between. We found Arens name on a list of donors to a NYMEX related charity—he gave less than a thousand bucks.
Arens still isn’t talking so its possible he’s only famous by mistake. For very personal reasons, we were hoping the $100 man was former Amaranth trader Brian Hunter. But let’s not go there just now.
Independent trader claims $100 oil record [Financial Times]
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the story is on Drudge, BBC news. some guy named Schork. Geniuses.
I did it!
@ jcd.
the guy quoted in the story is Schork, not the guy who bought the oil. tard.
@ jcd.
the guy quoted in the story is Schork, not the guy who bought the oil. tard.
not sure how much ‘excess’ profit is to be had from a 1 lot on the 40 cent difference that existed between the electronic and pit markets when it happened, but that kind of tape painting sure got the media talking heads going…
nothing on the Caucus today?
I’ve had at least 5 calls today asking about $100 cl. Agree with lurker, this is a great story for the “financial media” (DB requires no ” “) to circle jerk to, as if it wasn’t inevitable.
At least we will get to watch stories about how $100 crude is going to destroy America…ya know…as opposed to the $90+ crude we’ve seen since October.
It was an uptick in the pit by someone looking for stops, its a pretty common occurence. You buy one lot from another local above the market and he buys one back from you, the print gets in and hopefull sets off upside stops.
Gee, makes one wonder why the futures pits on the floor are all but dead. Good riddance.
Your’s is the itenlligent approach to this issue.
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