Bazz Central Banks create infinite money. No one can compete with them. It is not theory,it is conspiracy fact. They rig the derivatives which in turn control the prices in the real markets. Did you not read Chris Powell's interview ?

Arjay,
Please Answer my question first.

Arjay,
how do the central banks stop someone refusing an offered price ?
How do central banks stop someone offering a higher price ?

Posted by Bazz, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 7:16:00 AM

Bazz infinite money can always be the highest price offered,so would you knock back the highest price offered on your derivatives by Central Bankers? This is why the derivative market is 10 to 20 times the GDP of the planet and growing.

Not buying selling derivatives.
I am buying/selling WTI crude oil delivered at Cushing Oklahoma on 14th January.

Bass and Richard, the situation is a great deal more complex than either of you suggest. The price of oil has not dropped by about 50 percent in four months because of falling demand. The world economy has not slowed that much by a wide margin. There are other forces at work, and the Saudis both increasing supply and discounting the price is clearly evidence of manipulation. They are not doing that off their own bat. The likely link is Kerry's visit to S.A. In September.

The derivatives market is important, but not just for fixing the price of oil. More importantly are factors such as the use of derivative funding to finance shale oil production. That is a house of cards that will likely collapse in the first half of 2015.

There are other factors, including a massive shift to gas in the Eurasian countries, and major investments in alternative sources such as solar, wind and tide. The switch to the he latter three for household use in the UK and Europe is nothing short of astonishing.

You won't read about most of this in the Oz press because it doesn't fit their preferred world view. Such myopia and stupidity is a major reason why Australia is heading for a hard landing this year.

Actually James the demand has fallen off. China is buying less.
They have filled their storage capacity when the price started falling.
Japan has gone into recession as has Germany.
All this coincided with the peak in US production of tight oil.
I am sure that OPEC will only be too happy to see the tight oil producers in trouble.
You said:That is a house of cards that will likely collapse in the first half of 2015.
Yes I agree but the concensus seems to be that the companies will use
cash flow to make their payments. Those opinions put the collapse back
to end of 2015. The collapse in the numbers of drilling lease approvals
is signalling a collapse in tight oil production from mid to end 2015 onwards.

As a lot of contracts have already been paid, drilling and completion
of wells will continue for some time yet. Production of tight oil is
not likely to cease till about two years time, and decline will be
obvious from sometime this year.
Of course if buyers start seeing the decline and panic, it might well
push the price back up. I call it the Deffreyes effect.

Anyway it will be interesting to watch. May you live in interesting times !