You Sir, are an idiot... ...and what is that compared to the 20 MILLION barrels what the US uses DAILY???? Give us a break, the price of oil is decided by worldwide markets and a shitload of other factors not by a few thousands futures contracts....
Yeah, that's it - keep attack the OP with ad hominem attacks rather than debate his points on their merits. As to you oil bulls, I could claim your arguments are idiotic, as you are all tacitly stating that since oil consumption has increased by 3% on a global basis, each 1% increase in consumption justifies a 33% increase in per unit price (since oil has increased in price by 100% in the last 11 months). Yeah, sure.
'Justifies'? You think the markets give a flying f*** if you think the price is too high? The price is what it is, if you like it or not. We're better off spending more time trying to be on the right side of a trade rather than justifying and rationalizing where the market should trade. Last time I looked market prices are paying us, not fantasy prices.
My apologies. Let's look at it this way. If manipulating the price upward is so easy, why the government with its unlimited cash supply doesn't manipulate it downward? Also high oilprices are not always in the best interest of big oil, because it makes alternative energy more feasable... Now I am not completely against a little speculation surcharge in the price of oil, but that alone doesn't explain oilprices doubling and tripling in a relative short timeframe... How about hedgefunds jumping into the fracas and buying oilfutures? That sure would drive the price higher and no conspiracy needed....
Because it's not in their best interest. Seriously - stop and think about instead of jumping to a conclusion. The govt. does -not- have unlimited cash - they have unlimited paper. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE. Diluting the USD right now helps out no one living in the US, not even the wealthy. People will not buy gas as much when it's $6/gal compared to $3/gal. The oil companies have started using their profit margins to absorb the increase in the commodity price because they would rather sell 20 barrels of oil at $80 ea. then 2 barrels at $200 ea.
Yeah, I realized that. Ok so he is talking about June contracts. 20 million barrels used a day in the US multiplied by 30 days, that is 600 million barrels delivered somewhere in the US per month, so compared to that 450 million futures contracts aren't that many. I assume though not all deliveries have connections with futures... There is an easy way to push the oil price down. Just strengthen the dollar... P.S.: I would bet the open vs. finally delivered ratio is pretty much the same with other commodities.
That doesn't mean that the manipulation doesn't exist. If there is manipulation, why exactly are the future markets at the center of the commodity markets, instead of just hedging services. If there is a problem, you must first know it exists, then you can fix it.