Showing posts with label futures markets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label futures markets. Show all posts

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Don't blame speculators for oil price spike

Say my NC State colleagues Srini Krishnamurthy and Richard Warr in an N&O op-ed today.  Srini and Richard point out that the recent run-up in oil prices can easily be explained by rising global demand (blame China) and falling supply (blame Libya).  Also, futures markets themselves are subject to the same market forces -- for every speculator who wants to buy an option that pays off when oil prices rise, there has to be a seller who thinks otherwise.

By the way, I just bought gas this morning and the price has fallen in Cary to 3.71 per gallon.  Do speculators get credit for falling prices too?