The day-to-day world of crude oil traders is not usually open to outsiders. Few non-specialists appreciate how oil traders approach the markets, what their backgrounds are and how they make money.
This book brings the oil trading world to vivid life by introducing the reader to 40 real-life trades or strategies that were carried out by named market participants. The 40 chapters cover different geographies and different crude oil markets, providing an unparalleled insight into how crude oil traders work and think. Oil trading developed in its current form in the 1980s and the chapters cover these early beginnings through to the present day. The trades have been grouped in sections that relate to the nature of each trade and its broader use as an example of a successful trading style. Sections cover approaches to arbitrage trading; the impact of geopolitics; logistics and storage plays; short-term versus longer term trading; managing new crude oil grades; trading crude oil derivatives.
The book provides plenty of inspiration for current or prospective crude oil traders or analysts. It will also be valuable for academic researchers, business school case studies, and for anyone wanting to learn more about the individuals that shape the world’s most important commodity market.
Author(s): Owain Johnson
Series: Routledge Classic Market Trades
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 256
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Trading arbitrages
1 Night flight to Siberia
2 A sweet deal
3 Where physical meets paper
4 A false arbitrage
5 A Russian arbitrage strategy
6 Leveraging local knowledge
7 Finding the global optimal
Macro & micro trading
8 Calling a collapse
9 Learning from misfortune
10 Facing a force majeure
11 Trading the micro structure
12 Financing oil traders
13 Starting from ‘why not’
Spot versus term trading
14 Publish and circulate
15 Bringing indexation to Russia
16 Updating the NOC model
17 Flexibility of supply
18 Turning weakness into strength
19 The value of persistence
Logistics and storage trading
20 Preserving pipeline economics
21 A U.S. pipeline frenzy
22 Finding interesting niches
23 Smoothing logistics
24 Trading floating storage
25 Trading around strategic storage assets
Trading new crude oil grades
26 Marketing the first Brent
27 Flexibility plays
28 Refining the first Norwegian oil
29 Marketing a new stream
30 Splitting Basrah
31 Asia’s shift to sour
Trading crude oil derivatives
32 WTI proves itself
33 From floor to screen
34 Bringing Brent onscreen
35 Trading opaque markets
36 Trading as a calling card
37 A chart for success
Trading crude oil options
38 Trading on behalf of a nation
39 The invention of synthetic storage
40 Making a major shift
Further reading and bibliography
Index
