Oil Prices and Oil Rig Count

Discussion in 'Commodity Futures' started by DallasCowboysFan, Sep 23, 2016.

  1. Where do you go to get current news on oil ?

    I saw something Friday that oil was down 4 percent and other than increasing oil supplies I was wondering if anything else contributed to its loss.

    It seems to be going up and down about 1,2 percent every day now.

    I checked a few general places but never found a specific answer.

    Where is the best place to go for news on oil and natural gas?


    I checked Baker Hughes but did not see anything there. I did see that the oil rig count was up to 511. It also lists Canada and International. I am assuming these are offshore oil rigs in our waters as well as Canada.

    I thought that there were about 3500,4000 in the Gulf of Mexico. Does this include rigs from all nations and is my rig count accurate? Does Baker Hughes only report the ones that are actively being used and perhaps many have been shut down due to low prices? What does the rig count actually identify?

    Thanks!
     
    Baron likes this.
  2. Robert Morse

    Robert Morse Sponsor

    Try Twitter next time...free. I put in WTI and read this.

    upload_2016-9-23_22-12-35.png
     
    CannonTrading_Ilan likes this.

  3. Thanks, I don't use Twitter very much.....maybe I should....:)
     
  4. Use Stocktwits as it aggregates Tweets by ticker. I don't use my Twitter otherwise. I read an article on Blomberg about Transocean shutting their rigs off essentially vs. warm shutdown and in it they mention half of this $500M rigs are shutdown so quite the overhang to get oil into the $60's and $70's. Short-term, when it gets to the upper $40's/$50 is a rumor of no cuts...no kidding there hasn't been cuts yet.lol. Venezuela, Russia, Iran and even Saudi Arabia need the money, at least, until they IPO Aramco
     
  5. spread'em

    spread'em

    Twitter is THE most valuable tool for financial news and views. If you can contribute useful analysis/charts/views then you can quickly become a big part of the 'group' and get responses from individuals with great knowledge and experience.

    I rarely read news websites nowadays, preferring to pick up my news from twitter. Check out Javier Blas (BBG), John Kemp (Reuters), The Oil Merchant and the tag #OOTT for starters.
     


  6. I appreciate that. That is what I was looking for .... one or two places that I can go to if I want to learn something. As opposed to randomly searching google...... I'll add them.

    What about the rig count...........when Baker Hughes says there are 511 / U.S. oil rigs...are they talking about offshore oil rigs in U.S. waters.......or those owned by U.S. companies around the world?

    And as long as I have your attention....... a lot of people on this forum have talked about writing their own computer programs to serve their own needs. There are a lot of resources available online already. What is every one trying to achieve by writing their own program that they can't do by buying software already available or using the platform from their broker ? It has to be something unique and important or they wouldn't spend 6 months doing it. What do the programs accomplish that you can't do on your own by knowing that Tesla is overpriced , the 20 and 50 day averages are moving down and they are burning cash faster than the rocket that exploded on the launch pad 3 weeks ago..... What do custom software programs accomplish that is not already available ?

    One more random question I have on my mind.....There are 20 or 30 different option trades you can do........but I wonder how many people here actually trade straddles and bull put spreads and collars as opposed to just buying a put option on the S and P or the VIX? I honestly thought that buying debit spreads and bear calls ....were limited to hedge fund managers and mutual fund managers. But I've seen comments from others here that sound like they are quite common for many people. I don't think you can track it, but I wonder what percentage of trades are just basic calls and puts on a stock / index and how many contracts are related to more complex trading strategies ?

    Thank$ !
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2016
  7. dealmaker

    dealmaker

    You can set up Google alerts and any time there is news it will be in your inbox....
     
  8. I know you are probably asking from a retail pespective but I can tell you what energy professionals use. They will typically have bloomberg or reuters eikon energy as a base service. There are then companies out there who provide specialist data and reports Platts, PVM reports, Genscape. The reason I write this is that many retail traders are fooled into thinking they can get some sort of fundamental edge. The facts are if you work as a professional energy trader you have all of this information on tap and the monthly costs are prohibitive for retail. Refinery outages, trade flows, shipping, storage, waterborne/rail. Some of these companies have choppers flying around and IR scanning pipelines, storage facilities and eyes on ports noting water marks on tankers. Energy markets are highly manipulated, the producers/refiners/tankers collude 'allegedly' of course.

    My 2c is that for retail traders trading oil I would move out time frames and swing trade with large stops and just be aware of the main scheduled news and view them as volatility injections. The big 3 are EIA, API & rig count. You can pick this data up 20 seconds after the fact on twitter.

    GL
     
    Adam777 likes this.
  9. spread'em

    spread'em

    No, when they mention oil rigs they are referring to drilling rigs that are used in exploration and development. They are generally seen as 'not that useful' to some in the industry nowadays though. See the following two articles:

    https://www.ft.com/content/98d1646c-ad45-11e4-bfcf-00144feab7de

    http://fuelfix.com/blog/2016/07/25/do-rig-counts-still-matter/

    I think you're referring to algorithms which are proprietary programs that traders build to automate their trading strategies. Very useful if your strategy is mechanical and doesn't rely on intuition or gut feel.
     
  10. CannonTrading_Ilan

    CannonTrading_Ilan Sponsor

    We have live streaming news on our trading platform as well. You can try a demo if you like.
     
    #10     Sep 26, 2016