[extropy-chat] profitable arbitrage VS gouging/profiteering on disaster

Lifespan Pharma Inc. megao at sasktel.net
Fri Sep 2 13:13:06 UTC 2005


I asked someone in the oilpatch who invest, re-invests and has made good 
from the last few years of oil
activity where the money goes from oil investment profits.
He said most is still re-invested.
What I wanted to know is where else is it might be going.
Is the bubble still moving along or are some starting to diversify?

Price wise the overnight move from 1.00-1.20/liter CAD is not prompted 
by supply and demand
as I can't see supply bid  up for actual delivery that dramatically, 
that fast.

However unleaded gas and heating oil options I can see moving overnight.
In this case I am of the opinion that an executive order should have 
been made as a pre-emptive
to cap upward moves in options to say 1/2 a cent a day so that the 
supply-demand crisis would
not simply flush the consumer dollars into options traders profiting on 
fear/catastrophe in a manner
not actually related to market forces.

This sort of thing happened with the first BSE with beef and I still 
remember the phone call
I got just as the news broke asking if I wanted to capture the move on 
beef and
"ride it all the way to the bottom".

This the sort of thing both our prime minister and the USA president 
could have done
just ahead of the actual crisis to buffer the shock to the population.

In my mind this is one of the few things a government can do independant 
of the market
which is intended to be for the general good VS the gouging by a few 
well placed
arbitragers getting an exhorbitant windfall.




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