Very interesting -- what's freaking me out is that I heard that oil prices were headed for an imminent crash on my favorite wacko conspiracy theory radio program a couple of weeks back. Some random caller said that a wealthy oilman he knew told him that prices were about to plummet. He was probably just making it up, but still -- weird.
I guess this isn't that surprising. I've recently come to the sad realization that all of these markets are rigged and gamed. Stocks, commodities, currencies, all of it -- it's a big casino and we are the suckers.
Also, check the US dollar today -- huge move against the euro.
Horrible, just horrible. My net worth dropped at least 3% in the last week.
That's what happens when you enter a casino my friend. The house always wins. There's another thread on here today where someone mentioned his hedge fund manager friend that had accumulated $12M after tax. He ain't doing that by helping suckers like us get rich, that's for sure...
Submitted by jficquette on August 8, 2008 - 4:56pm.
CONCHO wrote:
Very interesting -- what's freaking me out is that I heard that oil prices were headed for an imminent crash on my favorite wacko conspiracy theory radio program a couple of weeks back. Some random caller said that a wealthy oilman he knew told him that prices were about to plummet. He was probably just making it up, but still -- weird.
I guess this isn't that surprising. I've recently come to the sad realization that all of these markets are rigged and gamed. Stocks, commodities, currencies, all of it -- it's a big casino and we are the suckers.
Also, check the US dollar today -- huge move against the euro.
The markets are set for the few to fleece the many. Otherwise they wouldn't exist. Why would Wall Street spend literally hundreds of billions over decades investing in systems and infrastructure unless they were guaranteed a profit?
How do you guarantee yourself a profit in a supposely random enviornment? By cheating the pubic using front running, insider information, naked short selling, government intervention.
Submitted by Hot Blonde on August 8, 2008 - 6:43pm.
Market is moving 200 or 300 points a day. Sideways. CNBC guy said VIX is still a relatively modest 21 so it is not so much volatility as herd mentality. The investment bankers are making tons o' dough scalping these moves. They need to. They've got billions in losses to make up.
Submitted by stockstradr on August 8, 2008 - 7:53pm.
I guess I'm obliged toss my opinion into the ring, as I’ve been the Oil Bear on this Forum for over a year now.
I incorrectly predicted that $85/bbl was the top, and I started shorting the Oil and Gas Index then. I slightly redeemed myself later by RE-guessing that $135/bbl was the actual top. I got that right, telling several friends correctly to short oil at $140/bbl. They have made some good money already. I didn't double-down my short oil index position at $140 on the basic principle of not throwing more good money at a bad bet, and because I would have been elevating my portfolio risk to an insane level.
My short Oil Index position is now almost flat even, which is nothing to brag about for 7% of my portfolio sitting doing nothing for a year.
Also, I must credit the overall stock markets for falling 20%, further depressing oil stocks, so putting me near a net flat position, even though oil has come nowhere near the original $85/bbl price at which I starting shorting oil and gas industry stocks.
I no longer am confident (no surprise) that oil will hit $60/bbl. When oil hits about $100/bbl, I plan to SELL my short Oil & Gas Index ETF ("DUG") and START BUYING oil stocks.
There are countless scary risk factors that could appear at any moment and double the price of oil within a few weeks. Of these, I'm most afraid that Israel will attack Iran which I believe would almost immediately send oil over $200/bbl.
Those risk factors are why I just want to GET OUT of my short oil index positions as soon as I'm net flat on that risky "investment"
I credit our wise and experienced financial Sage, Rich Toscano, for having warned me long ago not to take short positions on oil at $85/bbl. Rich's advice, as always, is spot-on.
John, your ever morphing opinion on oil is very telling. You start with the speculation argument then you move to, it's the democrats fault., then you laughably trot out shale oil. Now that oil is going down you are back to speculation. Now is speculation your final answer?
No doubt that speculation acts as an amplification of the trend, there is also war premium and currency valuation plays a role, but fundamentals is still the driver.
The simple fact remains that we are on a four year plateau and many old fields declining fast and new projects will not offset old declines in the very near future. There is a nice group of professions called ASPO (association study of peak oil) take the time out of their lives and do the math for free because they think it is a huge issue. The ASPO spawned theoildrum.com another group of professionals, may with Phds, that tackle the issue from many angles also in their free time. And it is an enormous issue that touches all aspects of modern civilization and requires technical people from many different disciplines to help understand the full implications. There is also a college in northern california called the post carbon institute that' main focus is fossil fuel depletion.
This downturn was to be expected by any astute watcher of oil.
-Production his holding steady, actually and uptick in OPEC - SA, Angola and Kuwait are up about 600K between the three of them.
-Demand is precipitously falling in the west, the US is down like 500K bbl per day from last year and failing quickly. The EU is doing the same
-Threat of War with Iran is down
-The dollar is up
-And all projections are for much lower demand because of the economy.
Given all the above variables factored in with the elasticity of oil, it's doing about what it is supposed to.
Actually, I have a post from back in January here where I predicted volatile prices trading between $80 and $150 here on this site for 2008. Basically if you study the big picture economy (falling) and production forecasts by reliable sources (stable) this was expected. The fall in oil is more an indicator of our economy than anything else.
Let's focus on the big picture for a moment.
The fact remains we are still on the plateau that can't be surpassed but by maybe a tiny fraction and of what it is and will start declining, forever, at most in 5 years depending on the severity of the recession/depression we are going into.
As prices continue to go down, which I am fairly sure it should due to the state of the economy and the projected stability of production, it turns off signals for market solutions to the problem. Once we go sub $80, forget it, the market won't tell us again until it's too late.
These high prices should be a warning to everybody of what can happen when we bump up against limits and if we do not have a massive transition to alternatives starting yesterday there will be mucho problemos in the very near future. If terminal decline started today @ 4-8% yearly we mine as well hit reset on the global economy because it would not function with in two years at most.
Now you can link all these articles that give people a false sense of security but IMO they obfuscate the real problem and feed into peoples denial of the fact that everything has to change or nature will change it for us in an unpleasant way.
The physical reality of peak oil is not really a problem. It's everybody's response to it. Which, by in large, has been denial as so evident by this thread.
Here is a excellent documentary, Crude Awakening, for a started course on peak oil if anybody is interested.
Now a closing word from retired geologist Colin Campbell (Texaco, BP, Amoco):
"Throughout history, people have had difficulty in distinguishing reality from illusion. Reality is what happens, whereas illusion is what we would like to happen. Wishful thinking is a well-worn expression. Momentum is still another element: we tend to assume that things keep moving in the same direction.
The world now faces a discontinuity of historic proportions, as nature shows her hand by imposing a new energy reality. There are vested interests on all sides hoping somehow to evade the iron grip of oil depletion, or at least to put it off until after the next election or until they can develop some strategy for their personal or corporate survival. As the moment of truth approaches, so does the heat, the deceptions, the half-truth and the flat out lies."
The "horrible, horrible" remark was made sarcastically
Not entirely sarcastically - I do have a lot of money in euros, francs and australian dollars, and all these investments all tanking. AUD is down 3% since I got in, the rest is still in the green, but I'm looking at much smaller gains now.
Of course it could have been much worse, I could have invested in S&P, or even emerging markets. GBRCX is down 27% since I got out. It may be time to start looking for an entry point.
Long term, these developments in oil prices will allow the Fed to drop rates even further, and the economy is still weak enough that the Fed would do that if inflation allows them. So, I think it's a fluctuation rather than a long-term trend.
Arraya,
I still feel speculation/manipilation was the main driver that pushed oil up to 147 or so.
For once you and I agree on something, John.
I don't how anybody could watch the events this year - especially the last few weeks - and not come to that conclusion.
Though I may be totally off base here, I have two theories on why speculation may have run rampant:
1) Investors were trying to figure out where to stash their money - housing looks bad, stock market looks bad, gotta put it somewhere! Why not oil?
2) I wouldn't put it past some of the other countries who are very unhappy with the current US political climate to try and influence the upcoming election by artificially increasing the price of oil through speculation to attempt to tilt the field toward the Dems. I have absolutely zero proof - just a hunch.
I usually don't go for conspiracy theories but I'm making an exception in this case. :)
Submitted by jficquette on August 9, 2008 - 4:43pm.
Arraya,
I agree with you pretty much 100% however I don't think that the price of oil was maniplated to affect the political climate here in the US. I think it was just pure greed. I really feel that Russia was the primary manipulator, along with Wall Street.
I do not think that price of oil would have gotten this high if we had had an energy policy in place oriented to developing our own reserves. Not so much for the additional oil as for how it would affect the market psychology.
Submitted by jficquette on August 9, 2008 - 8:04pm.
Here is an article discussing Iraq's renewed effort to search for new reserves.
"The International Energy Agency, in a report released in mid-2006, said only 10 percent of Iraq has been explored for oil and 60 percent of proven reserves are in undeveloped fields."
Submitted by equalizer on August 9, 2008 - 9:36pm.
I think I posted somewhere about oil peaking on Memorial Day, but it actually peaked on 4th of July. Looking back last few years oil peaks in the spring during the change to summer fuel. Just a lot more speculation this year pushed it higher and into the summer.
Submitted by Nor-LA-SD-guy on August 11, 2008 - 1:10pm.
In absent of some major geo-political event that creates a long term interruption.
As long as Gas stays above 3 Dollars, people will gradually move to small cars and plug-in Hybrids ,
Truck fleets will move to Nat Gas and synthetic fuels , it will be a little painful but not disastrous .
And no it will not be the end of suburbia as we know it.
Very interesting -- what's freaking me out is that I heard that oil prices were headed for an imminent crash on my favorite wacko conspiracy theory radio program a couple of weeks back. Some random caller said that a wealthy oilman he knew told him that prices were about to plummet. He was probably just making it up, but still -- weird.
I guess this isn't that surprising. I've recently come to the sad realization that all of these markets are rigged and gamed. Stocks, commodities, currencies, all of it -- it's a big casino and we are the suckers.
Also, check the US dollar today -- huge move against the euro.
Also, check the US dollar today -- huge move against the euro.
Horrible, just horrible. My net worth dropped at least 3% in the last week.
Horrible, just horrible. My net worth dropped at least 3% in the last week.
That's what happens when you enter a casino my friend. The house always wins. There's another thread on here today where someone mentioned his hedge fund manager friend that had accumulated $12M after tax. He ain't doing that by helping suckers like us get rich, that's for sure...
Horrible, just horrible. My net worth dropped at least 3% in the last week.
The weak dollar was killing Europe. They had to do something about it.
John
I guess this isn't that surprising. I've recently come to the sad realization that all of these markets are rigged and gamed. Stocks, commodities, currencies, all of it -- it's a big casino and we are the suckers.
Also, check the US dollar today -- huge move against the euro.
The markets are set for the few to fleece the many. Otherwise they wouldn't exist. Why would Wall Street spend literally hundreds of billions over decades investing in systems and infrastructure unless they were guaranteed a profit?
How do you guarantee yourself a profit in a supposely random enviornment? By cheating the pubic using front running, insider information, naked short selling, government intervention.
That's my story and I am sticking to it. (g)
John
The "horrible, horrible" remark was made sarcastically
Market is moving 200 or 300 points a day. Sideways. CNBC guy said VIX is still a relatively modest 21 so it is not so much volatility as herd mentality. The investment bankers are making tons o' dough scalping these moves. They need to. They've got billions in losses to make up.
I guess I'm obliged toss my opinion into the ring, as I’ve been the Oil Bear on this Forum for over a year now.
I incorrectly predicted that $85/bbl was the top, and I started shorting the Oil and Gas Index then. I slightly redeemed myself later by RE-guessing that $135/bbl was the actual top. I got that right, telling several friends correctly to short oil at $140/bbl. They have made some good money already. I didn't double-down my short oil index position at $140 on the basic principle of not throwing more good money at a bad bet, and because I would have been elevating my portfolio risk to an insane level.
My short Oil Index position is now almost flat even, which is nothing to brag about for 7% of my portfolio sitting doing nothing for a year.
Also, I must credit the overall stock markets for falling 20%, further depressing oil stocks, so putting me near a net flat position, even though oil has come nowhere near the original $85/bbl price at which I starting shorting oil and gas industry stocks.
I no longer am confident (no surprise) that oil will hit $60/bbl. When oil hits about $100/bbl, I plan to SELL my short Oil & Gas Index ETF ("DUG") and START BUYING oil stocks.
There are countless scary risk factors that could appear at any moment and double the price of oil within a few weeks. Of these, I'm most afraid that Israel will attack Iran which I believe would almost immediately send oil over $200/bbl.
Those risk factors are why I just want to GET OUT of my short oil index positions as soon as I'm net flat on that risky "investment"
I credit our wise and experienced financial Sage, Rich Toscano, for having warned me long ago not to take short positions on oil at $85/bbl. Rich's advice, as always, is spot-on.
John, your ever morphing opinion on oil is very telling. You start with the speculation argument then you move to, it's the democrats fault., then you laughably trot out shale oil. Now that oil is going down you are back to speculation. Now is speculation your final answer?
No doubt that speculation acts as an amplification of the trend, there is also war premium and currency valuation plays a role, but fundamentals is still the driver.
The simple fact remains that we are on a four year plateau and many old fields declining fast and new projects will not offset old declines in the very near future. There is a nice group of professions called ASPO (association study of peak oil) take the time out of their lives and do the math for free because they think it is a huge issue. The ASPO spawned theoildrum.com another group of professionals, may with Phds, that tackle the issue from many angles also in their free time. And it is an enormous issue that touches all aspects of modern civilization and requires technical people from many different disciplines to help understand the full implications. There is also a college in northern california called the post carbon institute that' main focus is fossil fuel depletion.
This downturn was to be expected by any astute watcher of oil.
-Production his holding steady, actually and uptick in OPEC - SA, Angola and Kuwait are up about 600K between the three of them.
-Demand is precipitously falling in the west, the US is down like 500K bbl per day from last year and failing quickly. The EU is doing the same
-Threat of War with Iran is down
-The dollar is up
-And all projections are for much lower demand because of the economy.
Given all the above variables factored in with the elasticity of oil, it's doing about what it is supposed to.
Actually, I have a post from back in January here where I predicted volatile prices trading between $80 and $150 here on this site for 2008. Basically if you study the big picture economy (falling) and production forecasts by reliable sources (stable) this was expected. The fall in oil is more an indicator of our economy than anything else.
Let's focus on the big picture for a moment.
The fact remains we are still on the plateau that can't be surpassed but by maybe a tiny fraction and of what it is and will start declining, forever, at most in 5 years depending on the severity of the recession/depression we are going into.
As prices continue to go down, which I am fairly sure it should due to the state of the economy and the projected stability of production, it turns off signals for market solutions to the problem. Once we go sub $80, forget it, the market won't tell us again until it's too late.
These high prices should be a warning to everybody of what can happen when we bump up against limits and if we do not have a massive transition to alternatives starting yesterday there will be mucho problemos in the very near future. If terminal decline started today @ 4-8% yearly we mine as well hit reset on the global economy because it would not function with in two years at most.
Now you can link all these articles that give people a false sense of security but IMO they obfuscate the real problem and feed into peoples denial of the fact that everything has to change or nature will change it for us in an unpleasant way.
The physical reality of peak oil is not really a problem. It's everybody's response to it. Which, by in large, has been denial as so evident by this thread.
Here is a excellent documentary, Crude Awakening, for a started course on peak oil if anybody is interested.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=e...
Now a closing word from retired geologist Colin Campbell (Texaco, BP, Amoco):
"Throughout history, people have had difficulty in distinguishing reality from illusion. Reality is what happens, whereas illusion is what we would like to happen. Wishful thinking is a well-worn expression. Momentum is still another element: we tend to assume that things keep moving in the same direction.
The world now faces a discontinuity of historic proportions, as nature shows her hand by imposing a new energy reality. There are vested interests on all sides hoping somehow to evade the iron grip of oil depletion, or at least to put it off until after the next election or until they can develop some strategy for their personal or corporate survival. As the moment of truth approaches, so does the heat, the deceptions, the half-truth and the flat out lies."
The "horrible, horrible" remark was made sarcastically
Not entirely sarcastically - I do have a lot of money in euros, francs and australian dollars, and all these investments all tanking. AUD is down 3% since I got in, the rest is still in the green, but I'm looking at much smaller gains now.
Of course it could have been much worse, I could have invested in S&P, or even emerging markets. GBRCX is down 27% since I got out. It may be time to start looking for an entry point.
Long term, these developments in oil prices will allow the Fed to drop rates even further, and the economy is still weak enough that the Fed would do that if inflation allows them. So, I think it's a fluctuation rather than a long-term trend.
Arraya,
I posted that article on Oil simply to show it to the group for information only.
I still feel speculation/manipilation was the main driver that pushed oil up to 147 or so.
John
I still feel speculation/manipilation was the main driver that pushed oil up to 147 or so.
For once you and I agree on something, John.
I don't how anybody could watch the events this year - especially the last few weeks - and not come to that conclusion.
Though I may be totally off base here, I have two theories on why speculation may have run rampant:
1) Investors were trying to figure out where to stash their money - housing looks bad, stock market looks bad, gotta put it somewhere! Why not oil?
2) I wouldn't put it past some of the other countries who are very unhappy with the current US political climate to try and influence the upcoming election by artificially increasing the price of oil through speculation to attempt to tilt the field toward the Dems. I have absolutely zero proof - just a hunch.
I usually don't go for conspiracy theories but I'm making an exception in this case. :)
Arraya,
I agree with you pretty much 100% however I don't think that the price of oil was maniplated to affect the political climate here in the US. I think it was just pure greed. I really feel that Russia was the primary manipulator, along with Wall Street.
I do not think that price of oil would have gotten this high if we had had an energy policy in place oriented to developing our own reserves. Not so much for the additional oil as for how it would affect the market psychology.
Thanks,
John
Here is an article discussing Iraq's renewed effort to search for new reserves.
"The International Energy Agency, in a report released in mid-2006, said only 10 percent of Iraq has been explored for oil and 60 percent of proven reserves are in undeveloped fields."
John
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=...
I think I posted somewhere about oil peaking on Memorial Day, but it actually peaked on 4th of July. Looking back last few years oil peaks in the spring during the change to summer fuel. Just a lot more speculation this year pushed it higher and into the summer.
In summary: If you have an SUV you want to get rid of, your window of opportunity may be open for the next year or two.
This problem ain't going away.
I am sure Mother Russia's latest little skirmish in Georgia will turn things back in their favor.
Absolutely right. It looks like the Cold War is back and heating up.
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PA...
In absent of some major geo-political event that creates a long term interruption.
As long as Gas stays above 3 Dollars, people will gradually move to small cars and plug-in Hybrids ,
Truck fleets will move to Nat Gas and synthetic fuels , it will be a little painful but not disastrous .
And no it will not be the end of suburbia as we know it.