[advancedatheist]

I've noticed that we see a lot of news about oil prices during the week, yet on the weekend the trading stops and then we might see some analysis of the preceding week's oil trends.

If all the trading activities involved in getting oil from the well to the consumer are so socially necessary, how can the process stand to shut down for 40 hours at a stretch periodically? What would happen if the oil markets didn't function for a week? or a month?

[linlithgowoil]

i dont actually know how it works over the weekend, but i presume that people are buying oil for the coming weeks and months ahead and it doesnt really matter if trading stops for a day or so, as deals have been struck already.

i suppose if the oil market was shut for a couple of weeks you'd have problems, but then you have electronic trading etc. - i just dont seee how the oil market would be shut for that long, barring some kind of disaster - but even then, the market would just be relocated somewhere else.

[BabyPeanut]

Nymex monitors go dead for me on the weekend but on Monday all sorts of trading shows up retroactivally. Same for evenings.