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A comment on Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract ending. Parent comment

Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by hermitdev on Monday April 20, 2020 @05:37PM (#22928886)
This reminds me of Brian Hunter [0] of Amaranth fame. He was on the wrong side of a huge (multi billion USD) long trade on Natural Gas. When faced with losing it all, he doubled down. Blew up Amaranth. $9B USD hedge fund blew up basically overnight. Margin calls, etc, etc.

Disclaimer: I worked for the hedge fund at the time that bought Amaranth's holdings for pennies on the dollar. Was supposed to be a joint buyout with JP Morgan Chase, but Chase couldn't calculate the risk in time before closing and left us with all of the eggs in the basket. We ended up making a killing on the deal as we had the assets to weather the margin calls. I still can't believe anyone gave B.H. any money to trade with after that, but someone did...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Hunter_(trader)

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by MR4D on Monday April 20, 2020 @06:18PM (#22929372)
One thing is clear to me - somebody is getting fired this week. Not sure if it's a hedge fund or producer, or a trader or a team, but someone is getting fired.
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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by baggy_trough on Monday April 20, 2020 @06:50PM (#22929706)
Everyone is getting fired.
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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by MR4D on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:17AM (#22931815)
Not likely. This could actually be one person/team who was out of balance on their book.

Back in 2008 when oil hit $150, it was due to a single trader. Needless to say, everyone in the industry was pissed at him afterwards.

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by baggy_trough on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @05:45PM (#22939656)
Everyone in the economy is getting fired.
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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by divbzero on Monday April 20, 2020 @10:54PM (#22931363)
I recall Amaranth was recruiting on campus that week, and cancelled all interviews the very next week.
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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by loa_in_ on Monday April 20, 2020 @06:13PM (#22929324)
That man is one of a very small group according to this list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rogue_traders

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Re:Oil plunges below zero for first time with May contract e... by jjallen on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:22PM (#22936374)
Arguably he wasn't rogue, judging from John Arnold's account of the situation[0]. He just made way to big of a trade.

Think his account is somewhere between 10-20 minutes in this video 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=68&v=G6zFBzadTw0...

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