Nymex $30 February Crude Oil Put Options Most Heavily Traded [View All]

[depakid]

Oil options that convey the right to sell February crude oil in New York at $30 a barrel traded 1,406 lots, up from 1 yesterday, making them the most-traded options contract today, exchange data show.

The contracts, bets that oil for February delivery will fall below $30 a barrel, went for 45 cents, or $450 per contract, at 1:42 p.m. New York time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's up 25 cents from yesterday.

Crude oil futures rose $1.22, or 2.2 percent, to $57.38 a barrel as of 1:42 p.m. on the Nymex. They have fallen 61 percent since reaching a record $147.27 a barrel in July. Futures are down 15 percent this month.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adgxlFlhhDTA&refer=home
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This probably means little in today's volatile markets, but the fact that people are even making those bets- much less that a lot of them are, is a pretty remarkable development considering what we were looking at back in June and July. Certainly a good deal of it can be attributed to demand destruction (and changed American habits) plus the rise of the dollar- but one wonders what else might be going on.

It also leaves one to ponder how much worse the situation would be if we were broaching $200 oil, while going through financial convulsions and periods of higher unemployment....