Nymex $30 February Crude Oil Put Options Most Heavily Traded

[depakid]

Oil options that convey the right to sell February crude oil in New York at $30 a barrel traded 1,406 lots, up from 1 yesterday, making them the most-traded options contract today, exchange data show.

The contracts, bets that oil for February delivery will fall below $30 a barrel, went for 45 cents, or $450 per contract, at 1:42 p.m. New York time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's up 25 cents from yesterday.

Crude oil futures rose $1.22, or 2.2 percent, to $57.38 a barrel as of 1:42 p.m. on the Nymex. They have fallen 61 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel in July. Futures are down 15 percent this month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adgxlFlhhDTA&refer=home
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This probably means little in today's volatile markets, but the fact that people are even making those bets- much less that a lot of them are, is a pretty remarkable development considering what we were looking at back in June and July. Certainly a good deal of it can be attributed to demand destruction (and changed American habits) plus the rise of the dollar- but one wonders what else might be going on.

It also leaves one to ponder how much worse the situation would be if we were broaching $200 oil, while going through financial convulsions and periods of higher unemployment....

[aquart]

1. They stole as much as they could before the Democrats took control.

Seems to me this happened before Clinton took office the first time, but I've seen a lot of presidents and it may have been a different one. Anybody with a better memory?

[Andy823]

2. I agree.

They jacked the prices up every year since Bush took office, and as bad as things looked for the election, they wanted to get their last big chance to screw the people in, just in case the republicans lost, and they did. Big oil companies have made a killing off of us, and so have the speculators. They had no regulations to stop them, and the regulations they did have were not enforced by the current administration. Big oil knows that the democrats are going to get tough on them, so did the speculators. The cost of oil, and thus the price of gas, has contributed greatly to the mess our economy, and the worlds economy, is in now. The greed of those responsible is beyond criminal, and they should be punished, though they never will.

Another reason I think prices are going down is that if oil becomes cheap, and gas follows, there will be no incentive for alternative fuel sources to be developed, at least that's what the hope. We need to show them they are wrong, and we need to push renewable sources to the front. Wind, sun, bio fuels that do not take away food crops, and any other new sources need to be pushed by Obama and congress so that we don't go through this all over again down the road.

I think you may be right about it happening before Clinton took office, same reason, so no new sources would be pushed ahead of oil, but I am not really positive on that. My memory is not as good as it once was either!

[jpak]

3. They stole virtually every penny of those "stimulus" checks last summer

right into the ol' gas pump

yessah