[billyk]

The oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders. He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up. Could be interesting. billyk

[Blacksmith]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', 'T')he oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders. He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up. Could be interesting. billyk

[DantesPeak]

The effect of speculation on the oil market is not clear, since theoretically, each buyer of a futures contract has a seller on the other side. Often called a zero sum game, unless one of the futures participants is actually buying, selling, or holding physical oil, futures’ trading has almost no effect on price in the long run. Now if someone intended to buy oil and store in some location, they could start that process by buying contracts and eventually take delivery. That could disrupt markets – but we haven’t seen much, if any, accumulation of oil at any storage point.

On the other point, Saudi Arabia may be playing a double game here. It gives favorable discounts on Arab Heavy crude oil only to the US, and before long, oil inventories in the US are “comfortable”. Meanwhile total world crude inventories have been falling since 2005 – yet almost no one except POers even notices that fact.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', 'T')he oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders. He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up. Could be interesting. billyk

[yeahbut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', ' ')He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up.

[Ming]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', 'T')he oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders. He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up. Could be interesting. billyk

[evilgenius]

If you increase the cost of doing business, even the borrowed cost, then only those with enough capital will do that business. This means the beginning of a huge transfer of wealth, from those that have been smart enough to those that are rich enough. This isn't about controlling speculation at all, only about controlling who is able to benefit from that speculation.

[Starvid]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Concerned', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', 'T')he oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders. He said that congress is finally taking a look at how these contracts are traded & they realize that something might need to be done to tone these volitile markets. He said two things congress is considering is raising the % that must be put down on a contract. Right now it's a paltry 4%. An increase to 50% like you must have with stocks will make a difference. The other option is that contract will have to be held for a certain amount of time. He said that right now it's too much of a game with these people & it's too vital a commodity to play with. I noticed that Saudi Arabia has said the same thing. There is plenty of oil in the market place but speculation is driving the price up & up. Could be interesting. billyk

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('billyk', 'T')he oil analyst for Bear Stearns was interviewed & gave his reasoning that oil prices are artificially inflated by speculators, hedge funds, & spastic traders.