Bloomberg has nice tools for example NOON: allows me to see the Crude Oil Stored in Floating Tankers Today... But I have never thought about good ways to make use of these info - i.e. how to turn these info into money and/or strategy... Any thoughts? Thanks! -------------- If there is enough per capita return (i.e. taking the operations into account) I am open to trade physicals or physicals+futures... For example, I may have some D2 Diesel to sell but I am not very sure how to find potential buyers... I have hoped that BB can be as helpful in trading physicals ...
You dont need to find the buyer... you just deliver on the futures. This is the classical arbitrage trade they teach in the books. If your costs are lower than the one implied by the futures and can consider the potential gain as large enough then you buy, store and deliver at the futures expiration. But I doubt that you can beat MS or GS in that trade. Otherwise, you could play calendar spreads (basis) based on an analysis of the number of tankers. I dont see how to connect the dots but it is much more realistic than loaning a tanker ;-)
You could also look for a relationship between th enumber of tankers and the price of tanker operator stocks. Suppose there are may tankers loaded with oil then the profits of some stocks could drift higher in the comming months because there is a shortage of supply in the number of tankers on the market. If you profit from it send me a Grand Marnier bottle, all I ask for.