I'm a trader, and someone who has travelled the world facilitating commodity deals. Let's just say if "they" can manipulate the silver and gold price, then manipulating other commodities isn't going to be a problem.
Throw in some speculators and a bunch of algos and voila. Free markets don't exist anymore.
And yes, I'm guilty as hell because I also develop my own algos. In my defence I only run them on CFD markets where I can't actually do any real world damage, because CFDs are synthetic derivatives.
While price manipulation is a recurring theme on many commodities-oriented discussion boards and threads, with energy commodities if there is manipulation it is through manipulation of supply (e.g., Biden opening the spigot on the SPR to suppress the price of oil and, ultimately, gasoline).
However, this leads us to the same place with or without manipulation: the prices are suggesting greater supply than the narrative indicates.
Which also suggests something else--as I stated, natural gas prices a year ago were slightly higher than they are today. The volatility (of which there is a lot) has not as of yet translated into much in the way of inflation over the past 12 months, despite there being a dramatic rise in prices going back into 2021.
Whether these outcomes are the result of free or manipulated markets is, at a certain level, immaterial. In either case, the pricing scenarios are not at all what the media narrative makes it out to be.
Problem solved:
https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1565048610680672259/photo/1
Hell that would solve the fertilizer shortage too!
A great post Peter. Thank you.
I'm a trader, and someone who has travelled the world facilitating commodity deals. Let's just say if "they" can manipulate the silver and gold price, then manipulating other commodities isn't going to be a problem.
Throw in some speculators and a bunch of algos and voila. Free markets don't exist anymore.
And yes, I'm guilty as hell because I also develop my own algos. In my defence I only run them on CFD markets where I can't actually do any real world damage, because CFDs are synthetic derivatives.
While price manipulation is a recurring theme on many commodities-oriented discussion boards and threads, with energy commodities if there is manipulation it is through manipulation of supply (e.g., Biden opening the spigot on the SPR to suppress the price of oil and, ultimately, gasoline).
However, this leads us to the same place with or without manipulation: the prices are suggesting greater supply than the narrative indicates.
Which also suggests something else--as I stated, natural gas prices a year ago were slightly higher than they are today. The volatility (of which there is a lot) has not as of yet translated into much in the way of inflation over the past 12 months, despite there being a dramatic rise in prices going back into 2021.
Whether these outcomes are the result of free or manipulated markets is, at a certain level, immaterial. In either case, the pricing scenarios are not at all what the media narrative makes it out to be.