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The Role of Speculation in Oil Markets: What Have We Learned So Far?

Bassam Fattouh, Lutz Kilian, and Lavan Mahadeva

Year: 2013
Volume: Volume 34
Number: Number 3
DOI: 10.5547/01956574.34.3.2
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Abstract:
A popular view is that the surge in the real price of oil during 2003-08 cannot be explained by economic fundamentals, but was caused by the increased financialization of oil futures markets, which in turn allowed speculation to become a major determinant of the spot price of oil. This interpretation has been driving policy efforts to tighten the regulation of oil derivatives markets. This survey reviews the evidence supporting this view. We identify six strands in the literature and discuss to what extent each sheds light on the role of speculation. We find that the existing evidence is not supportive of an important role of speculation in driving the spot price of oil after 2003. Instead, there is strong evidence that the co-movement between spot and futures prices reflects common economic fundamentals rather than the financialization of oil futures markets.



The Role of Financial Speculation in Driving the Price of Crude Oil

Ron Alquist and Olivier Gervais

Year: 2013
Volume: Volume 34
Number: Number 3
DOI: 10.5547/01956574.34.3.3
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Abstract:
As financial firms have increased their positions in the oil futures market during the past ten years, oil prices have increased dramatically as well. The coincidence of these two events has led some observers to argue that financial speculation caused the oil-price increases. Yet several arguments cast doubt on the validity of this claim. For example, although the quantity of oil implied by the number of open futures contracts is much larger than U.S. daily oil consumption, comparing these two statistics is misleading because not all paper oil is immediately deliverable. In addition, changes in financial firms� positions do not predict oil-price changes, but oil-price changes predict changes in positions. Other explanations for the oil-price increases include macroeconomic fundamentals such as increased demand from emerging Asia. Of these explanations, the most consistent with the facts relates the oil-price increases to a series of positive demand shocks emanating from emerging Asia.



Physical Markets, Paper Markets and the WTI-Brent Spread

Bahattin Buyuksahin, Thomas K. Lee, James T. Moser, and Michel A. Robe

Year: 2013
Volume: Volume 34
Number: Number 3
DOI: 10.5547/01956574.34.3.7
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Abstract:
We document that, starting in the Fall of 2008, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has periodically traded at unheard-of discounts to the corresponding Brent benchmark. We further document that this discount is not reflected in spreads between Brent and other benchmarks that are directly comparable to WTI. Drawing on extant models linking oil inventory conditions to the futures term structure, we test empirically several conjectures about how calendar and commodity spreads (nearby vs. first-deferred WTI; nearby Brent vs. WTI) should move over time and be related to storage conditions at Cushing. We then investigate whether, after controlling for macroeconomic and physical market fundamentals, spread behavior is partly predicted by the aggregate oil futures positions of commodity index traders.



Living in an Era when Market Fundamentals Determine Crude Oil Price

Theodosios Perifanis and Athanasios Dagoumas

Year: 2019
Volume: Volume 40
Number: The New Era of Energy Transition
DOI: 10.5547/01956574.40.SI1.tper
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Abstract:
Crude oil price plays a crucial role in the trajectory of the economic activity. This paper aims at quantifying the impact of the fundamental drivers of crude oil price, over the period 2008-2017 using monthly data. This period, with sharp fluctuations of crude oil prices, has not been examined thoroughly in the literature. We apply regression analysis to examine the crude oil price drivers, concluding that crude oil price follows mostly market fundamentals, such as consumption, OPEC production, shale production and days ahead consumption for OECD stocks. Results unveil the importance of both factors of demand and supply to affect the price. We also find evidence on the considerable impact of S&P crude oil index, as a "paper oil" market indicator. We do not find evidence from indicators measuring political instability, such as the number of terrorists attacks in oil producing countries, but as well the VIX volatility index, which - besides a market instability index - could also be perceived as an index incorporating political instability. The impact of political factors is not evident in our analysis, possibly because we do not consider related dummy variables. Moreover, the paper applies bivariate VAR and GARCH analysis to examine crude oil price volatility, not finding strong volatility transmission with the examined market indices, namely the S&P crude oil and the VIX indices.





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