[cudabachi]

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The wait for $100 oil is officially on.
Oil prices, which rose briefly above $90 a barrel Friday, are more likely to head towards $100 than $80 in the next month, according to the number of bets placed by options traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The large number of options held to buy crude at $100 a barrel could also act as a pull on prices toward that level and is being closely watched by the market.

The proliferation of options on $100 oil has come as more and more voices in the market start to consider the level attainable. A breach of $100, long deemed a far-fetched notion, would bring the price of oil back towards $101.70, its inflation-adjusted cash-market peak hit in April 1980 when the Iranian revolution and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war sent oil prices soaring.

As of Thursday, there were nearly three times as many options held to buy the December crude oil futures contract at $100 a barrel as there were to sell the contract at $80, according to Nymex data.

Concentrations of bets on options at certain levels can act as a magnet for crude oil prices as the options expiration date approaches, as big traders try to push futures prices to levels where their options positions become profitable.

"There is no reason to think that the top is in, and if anything the upside will accelerate now that $90 a barrel has been taken out," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president at Macquarie Futures USA in New York. "The market is already focussing on the huge open interest on the December $90 calls (50,150) and the $100 calls. This open interest will act as a gravitational pull to $100."
Holders of an option to buy at $100 - known as a call - benefit when prices rise above that level because when they exercise the option, they can instantly profit by selling at a higher price. Likewise, holders of options to sell, or puts, profit when prices fall.

[pup55]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')olders of an option to buy at $100 - known as a call - benefit when prices rise above that level because when they exercise the option, they can instantly profit by selling at a higher price. Likewise, holders of options to sell, or puts, profit when prices fall.