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Why is speculating on a commodity like oil not the same thing

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Skidmore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:21 PM
Original message
Why is speculating on a commodity like oil not the same thing
as cornering the market? It does create a real bottleneck that traps supplies within the hands of very few people.
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doc03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Because rich people do it n/t
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louis-t Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:23 PM
Response to Original message
2. Few people who never have to take possession or touch it.
It's all on paper.
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Skidmore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:36 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. They may never take possession of it or touch it but they have bought it
and own it.
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NeoConsSuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:24 PM
Response to Reply #4
12. Not if they use options.
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kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:25 PM
Response to Original message
3. How many of these oil futures traders work for Goldman Sachs?
And how much does GS make off these speculations?
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sharesunited Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 05:41 PM
Response to Original message
5. Our Dept. of Energy has the ability to pop this speculative bubble by selling short against the SPR.
Crush the longs by flooding the market with sell orders.

Then cover those shorts at lower prices without ever needing to release a drop of oil from the SPR.

We (the People of the USA) could MAKE A PROFIT by bankrupting the speculators with the SPR in this way.

Why aren't we doing it?

Because the policy of the Administration is that we should be making renewable resources more competitive.

Higher fossil fuel prices are consistent with that policy.
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Thunderstruck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #5
11. Interesting take
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Warren Stupidity Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:09 PM
Response to Original message
6. it is and was outlawed for around 60 years.
Only non-speculators were allowed to trade in the commodity markets after the 1930's reforms. Until of course the neolib/neocon ass-bags undid all that.
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Thunderstruck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:20 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. And they were allowed to get away with it. Now, it's part of the process.
That's what Americans get for sitting around and allowing this shit to continue happening.
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bbinacan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:11 PM
Response to Original message
7. Because the contracts
have expiration dates. Unless you take delivery, you can't corner the market. The Hunt brothers tried this with silver and DID take delivery. They ran out of vaults in the US and built some in Switzerland.
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ThomWV Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:15 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. They dam near got away with it too.
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bbinacan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Their undoing was
buying on margin. They got a $100,000,000 margin call from Bache. An unheard of amount at the time.
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Initech Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 06:48 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. And they would have too if it weren't for these meddling kids!!!
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