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Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

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Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#151
post #98
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally an increase in oil prices is considered an argument for more renewable investment. You're saying that a decrease in price is too. Is there any oil price movement that doesn't argue for more renewables to you? How about no change, is that a case for more renewable investment?

Renewables aren’t subject to huge price swings.

Is that actually true? You'd think solar would swing dramatically between day and night..

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

I remember this happened once, to someone who bought cocoa on the commodities market.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#153
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The producers aren't gonna dump it (at least not in the US) because that is a surefire way to not only have the EPA bend them over but to have the EPA bend them over with the blessing of public opinion. Nobody wants to have their company be associated with pictures of oil soaked wildlife.

EPA isn’t enforcing right now.

This is obviously wrong. You cannot dump oil, and anyone found to be dumping will be prosecuted.

READ THE EPA STATEMENT..

https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-03/documents...

> The enforcement discretion described in this temporary policy do not apply to any criminal violations or conditions of probation in criminal sentences.

...

> This policy does not apply to imports.

They are relaxing REPORTING requirements - not giving a free pass to anyone dumping whatever they want. Obviously.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#154

What happens when Saudi Arabia collapses? Does the royalty get the fuck out of town on their private jets with as many gold bars as they can carry?

This is good for Saudi Arabia. Their oil is largely very easy to extract so they have the lowest production costs, meaning their losing the least amount of money compared to other producers.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

There's a story online thats floated around for a while about a guy that ended up with like 10 tonnes of coal this way. Was delivered via barge somewhere if I recall correctly.

Edit: finally found it: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/Special-Delivery

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

John C. Hull - Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives has details on an accidental cattle futures physical settlement.

https://www.passeidireto.com/arquivo/73586616/john-c-hull-op...

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

There are services you can call to help you out of this predicament. Obviously they charge a huge margin.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#158

If the pandemic lasts longer than 6 months, which is quite likely, many high-cost oil producers might not survive. Some would argue this could lead to shortage and a much higher price later on, but long-term oil demand could also be affected. There might be some semi-permanent change in people's behaviors if the epidemic continues for many months. Many people will form a habit of doing more things at home/online: mor…

If this comes to pass, I'm all for it. If we could take the demand we saw for oil, and put it into demand for high-speed Internet, we could see completely new, blue ocean markets.

Imagine a surgeon being able to control a robotic surgery tool from the comforts of his/her home, where you have to have extremely low-latency or guaranteed low-latency networks. Or imagine mecheng offices running simulation jobs in the cloud or an on-premises instead of each having a workstation, and being able to cluster that compute together. All these have been possible to some degree with existing technology, but now we have a paradigm shift and market acceptance that unlocks new business possibilities.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#159
post #150

What happens when Saudi Arabia collapses? Does the royalty get the fuck out of town on their private jets with as many gold bars as they can carry?

Saudi Arabia still has the cheapest oil production costs in the world at $8.98/barrel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_of_oil#Comparative_cost_... ) They probably aren't making enough right now to pay for all of their commitments, but they definitely aren't losing money and they can likely borrow in the short term.

Not to mention they just had an IPO on their state oil company and raised a shot load of money.

Re: Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this almost happened to me once when I was trading futures. My broker called me several times throughout the day and I couldn't take the call. When I finally did, he told me to roll my contract forward that day otherwise I would have to take delivery of 1000 bushels of corn.

I'd love to hear from someone that got stuck with the 1000 bushels of corn (or similar). What do you do? How in the world do you manage that?

Worse it isn't 1000 bushes at your home it is at some transfer point several states away. If you are lucky it is an elevator that sends you a bill for storage and can unload them. If you are unlucky you need to get a truck (with a driver) there on short notice to get it out of there.
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