Koch Supply & Trading slashes Staff in Restructuring
Global commodity trader Koch Supply & Trading has cut dozens of workers across at least four offices worldwide, several sources said on Tuesday, as the firm restructures its business. The cuts at the unit of Koch Industries Inc, the industrial conglomerate of billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch, affected traders and support staff in its United States, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Singapore offices. The positions involved were primarily in refined products and fuel oil trading and operations, according to the sources.
Want to Bet on $100 oil? Some Already Have
Open interest trebles in December 2018 $100 calls. When crude prices crashed in early 2016 to $27 per barrel, most industry executives said the world had seen the last of oil at $100. Almost two years later, as a global crude glut shows signs of receding, the oil options market has seen a spike in activity at $100 a barrel, indicating some oil bulls are betting the price could trade around that level by this time next year. The oil price has hit its highest since 2015 and after having shied away from $60 a barrel this week…
Goodbye Contango? Oil's Long March Towards Backwardation
“The rebalancing of the oil market desired by the leading producers has been a stubborn process,” the International Energy Agency wrote in its latest monthly oil market report. The agency’s evident frustration about the slow and uneven pace of rebalancing, and the conflicting signals about whether it is happening at all, is shared by many traders, analysts and investors. “The medium-term outlook for oil still looks challenging with, if anything…
OPEC is Back in Business, and the Market is Sceptical: Kemp
OPEC's output accord in Algiers last month was initially greeted with enthusiasm by oil market bulls but much of that euphoria is now dissipating as traders question whether it will make an actual difference. The agreement, coming after many observers had written off the possibility of a deal, initially pushed crude prices sharply higher ("Saudi Arabia squeezes hedge funds with bearish bets on oil", Reuters, Oct. 10 ). Flat prices and timespreads…
Andy Hall: Accept it, OPEC 'back in business'
OPEC is back in charge of determining oil prices as Saudi Arabia works with Russia and archrival Iran to achieve output cuts, and only "a brave person" bets against this combination, closely followed oil bull Andy Hall says in his latest investor letter. "What is important is that Saudi Arabia and its GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) allies Kuwait and the UAE have agreed with their archnemesis Iran to cap production growth," Hall said in the October investor letter of the $2.5 billion oil-focused Astenbeck Capital Management fund in Southport…
Oil Funds Hold down Risk, Eye Volatility After Weak First Half
Oil's big rebound in the first half of the year was a squandered opportunity for most hedge funds with positions in crude, and a surge in volatility is likely to make it harder for them to call the market in the second half. The majority of hedge funds in the oil universe posted sparse returns in the six months to June even as crude rebounded from 12-year lows to post a 30 percent gain. Rather than extend risk through more bets on oil, some…
Oil Rebound Not Overdone, Crude in Early Bull Market -Hedge Fund BBL
Oil is in an early bull run despite the notion prices have rebounded too fast, too soon, hedge fund manager Jonathan Goldberg says as his energy-focused investment fund posts a 9 percent gain in the first quarter of this year. "Yes, the market is not as short as it was when prices were $26 (a barrel)," Goldberg, manager of the energy-focused $550 million BBL Commodities Value Fund in New York, told investors in a quarterly letter seen by Reuters on Monday.
Andy Hall's Fund Down 4 pct in January
Prominent oil bull Andy Hall said his Astenbeck Capital Management lost 4 percent in January as tottering global markets extended last year's gloom that cost the hedge fund its biggest annual loss of 36 percent. "If 2015 ended badly, then the start of 2016 was even worse," Hall wrote in his monthly letter to Astenbeck's investors, seen by Reuters on Tuesday. The epicenter of January's market anxiety was China, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's December rate hike…
Oil Prices Steady Around Multi-Year Lows
Brent steady at around multi-year lows. Oil prices steadied around 11-1/2-year lows, after rising earlier during the day following Chinese shares higher, as persistent global oversupply and a bleak demand outlook weighed on prices. Beijing deactivated a circuit breaker mechanism that was blamed for aggravating equity market crashes earlier this week. Oil prices plunged to 12-year lows on Thursday after leading energy consumer China allowed its yuan currency to slip, sending stock markets tumbling globally.
U.S. "oil trade king", BP's Porteous, to retire
One of the world's most powerful and best-paid oil traders, BP's head of crude Donald Porteous, will retire from the company in 2016 after what industry sources described as several years of bumper profits. Porteous, in his early 40s, is dubbed in the industry as "The King of Cushing", the United States' main oil trading hub, where BP controls large storage facilities, pipelines and a refinery, giving it a big logistical advantage over competitors.
Oil Bull Hall's Fund Widens Loss
Hedge fund manager Andy Hall, one of the most avowed oil bulls, had losses of about 7 percent in September, bringing the year-to-date decline to more than 20 percent, industry sources said on Friday. The September loss means the oil-focused fund managed by Hall's Astenbeck Capital Management in Southport, Connecticut has been down in six months out of this year's nine, based on earlier data circulated by the firm to investors in August and seen by Reuters. The firm had nearly $3 billion under management at the end of August.
Trend-Driven Funds Profit on Oil's Slippery Path
The oil market's 10 percent surge on Thursday offered a visceral reminder that many of its most active participants could not care less about global oil inventories, Saudi Arabia's stressed finances or the American shale revolution. For dozens of commodity trading advisors (CTAs) from Rotterdam to Chicago, so-called "systematic" funds that typically use price charts or computer models to plot their trades, all that matters is finding a trend and sticking with it.
Andy Hall's Fund Plunges $500 mln
Renowned oil trader Andy Hall suffered his second-biggest monthly loss ever in July in a "brutal month" that left his hedge fund about $500 million poorer, telling investors he failed to anticipate a sudden market shift that roiled crude. Hall's Astenbeck Capital Management in Southport, Connecticut, was the latest commodity fund to be hit by plummeting crude oil prices, following two funds closing last week. Astenbeck posted a 17 percent…
Andy Hall: Oil Prices Reach Turning Point
Famed oil trader Andy Hall said the meteoric rise in U.S. oil production has ended, easing a global glut and driving a rebound in crude prices, Bloomberg reported. Oil production from Texas to North Dakota peaked at about 10 million barrels a day in February and has been falling since then, Bloomberg reported, citing Hall's letter to investors of his commodities hedge fund, Astenbeck Capital Management LLC. "We have now reached a turning point," Bloomberg quoted Hall as saying in the letter on Friday.
