Wednesday, February 8, 2012

"Natural Gas Outrage of the Day" (UNG)

Listen up kids, Auntie Izzy and Uncle Olivier are talking hydrocarbons.
From FT Alphaville:
The natural gas market has always behaved a little oddly.

First, it’s always been hugely seasonal, thus responsible for many a widow-maker trade. But now investors and traders have to contend with the impact of fracking too, a process which has by and large upped production to such a degree that prices have been knocked well and hard (à la the Baltic Dry Index):


Yet, the odd thing is, even this latest spell of protracted underperformance has failed to quash growing interest from investors — all wanting to take a punt on the future direction of the natural gas market.
To wit, the following chart showing levels of open interest in natgas contracts, courtesy of Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix...MORE