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	<title type="html"><![CDATA[Crude Oil Futures Trading Forum by Live Oil Prices - ‘Rogue broker’ blamed for oil price spike]]></title>
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	<updated>2009-07-03T06:36:21Z</updated>
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			<title type="html"><![CDATA[‘Rogue broker’ blamed for oil price spike]]></title>
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			<content type="html"><![CDATA[The startling spike in oil prices to their highest level this year on Tuesday was caused by a rogue broker who placed a massive bet in the Brent oil market, triggering almost $10m (€7m) of losses for his company.

PVM Oil Associates, the world’s largest over-the-counter oil brokerage, said on Thursday it had been the “victim of unauthorised trading”. The privately owned company said that as a result of the unauthorised trades it had been forced to close substantial volumes of futures contracts at a loss. 

Oil traders in London and New York said the “unauthorised trading” explained the exceptional spike in business activity and prices in the early hours of Tuesday that some initially thought must have been caused by a geopolitical event. “Trading volumes rose overnight and prices jumped more than $2 a barrel without apparent justification,” a senior oil trader in New York said.

Prices rose in one hour from $71 to $73.5, the highest level for the year, according to Reuters data. In total, futures contracts for more than 16m barrels of oil changed hands in that hour – equivalent to double the daily production of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, and far more than the traditional 500,000 barrels for that time of the day.

Traders said the broker implicated had allegedly accounted for at least half of the unusual activity, with the rest the result of others chasing the rally. Oil prices on Thursday fell to $66.5 a barrel, down almost 10 per cent from Tuesday’s peak. 

View the full story from the FT here: [url]http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e0ae2b2a-66f7-11de-925f-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1[/url]]]></content>
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				<name><![CDATA[oil prices]]></name>
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			<updated>2009-07-03T06:36:21Z</updated>
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