Blox, while Nodoji is totally right, as usual, you're only reading part of the story: Crude +5.0M vs. consensus of +0.7M. Gasoline -4.4M vs. consensus of -0.2M. Distillates -1.6M vs. consensus of -1M. What matters is the total number vs. expectations. Yes, crude had a bigger than expected buildup (about +4.3), but gasoline had a much bigger draw than expected (-4.2 to -5, depending on the consensus you take). Distillates stocks were also lower than expected. So based on that, the report was neutral to bullish (if you consider that you need more barrels of oils - google gas crack spread - to refine an equal number of barrels of gas, then it would be moderately bullish to quite bullish). Anyway, it's probably better to simply trade what you see and not what you think.
I don't want to sound too tongue-in-cheek since I'm holding a short position, but the safest way to play the consolidation, which we're in, is to wait until it breaks out.
May I also add that CL is more contingent on the price of ES than it's own inventory. If ES is bullish, don't expect CL to drop no matter how bearish the number might be and vice versa.
sim We probably stay within this range, but playing for an upside breakout and successive series of stop-runs Long .31 Will add within the range or on its bo. Stop 20 ticks :57 stop to be :57 added at .43 avg .37 & stop to be :59 bid .51 to add on a pullback to the top of the range/prev LOD & stop moved to anticipated be at .42 Target: a test of 82.20 (or a pop of 82.00) :02 upped bid to .55 and be to .45 ES at mini resistance, but if euro pops 10 ticks we should see a pop in oil over .80 (2nd stops zone) :07 didn't get my third unit filled at .55 (would have got if I had raised it a tad before). Out at .87 on trailed stop after not seeing the pop I was expecting at the .80s and entering the lotto-close which should attract short traders; 50 ticks from avg. price x 2 cars = $990 sim bucks after sim commissions. Edit: if I had got filled at .55 (it hit .53 while I was bidding .51 - it wasn't out of the woods yet, so I didn't want to chase and get stopped out at be) that would have been another 32 ticks or about 1,300 USD, which is what I would consider a "half-er" or a trade in which I target about half a point from my average price adding at about +10 and +20, as opposed to a "full-house" where I target a whole point from the point of entry, adding at about +20 and +30/40, with an average of +/-80 ticks. It works fine in testing - seriously