Oil has been remarkably volatile this month but also remarkably difficult to explain. Move of more than 5% have become routine and 10% moves not uncommon.
What's making it especially tough for oil traders is the lack of a correlation with any kind of news or events. Today's sharp drop doesn't correspond with moves in other markets. Ostensibly there's worry about a recession and China lockdowns but that might be a sign of price action searching for a narrative.
Oil trader Pierre Andurand has other ideas. Responding to the FT energy editor who said he was "struggling a little with the bearish argument" for oil, he wrote this:
The correlation with 2008 would be slowing growth but at some point the amount of barrels in the market will be the only thing that matters.
Today, WTI crude oil settled at $95.84, down $8.25. That's a fraction above last week's low of $95.12.
If you don't know who Andurand is, he was already one of the most-famous oil traders alive before his fund surged 162% in the first half of this year.
