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’Natural gas outrage of the day
The natural gas market has always behaved a little oddly.
First, it’s always been hugely seasonal, thus responsible for many a widow-maker trade. But now investors and traders have to contend with the impact of fracking too,
When commodity ETFs go wrong…
Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix observes an interesting point on Thursday regarding one of our favourite whacko ETFs, the United States Natural Gas Fund, or UNG for short.
Readers might recall how the ETF was forced to load up on natural gas swaps last year,
Why JP Morgan’s new copper ETF may have a scouse exposure
JP Morgan threw its name into the physically backed commodity ETF race on Monday with the filing of a preliminary prospectus for a copper-backed product.
The SEC document, the first from a major new player preparing anticipating an entry into the market,
ETFs and HFT (redux)
We don’t like to gloat, but err, in this case we can’t help ourselves.
That’s because from the moment commodity ETFs like the USO and the UNG began acting weirdly in 2009, FT Alphaville speculated they were probably being arbitraged in some fancy fashion by a new breed of index arbitrageur,
Someone’s smarter than the average natgas bear
Analysts agree, natural gas fundamentals are still bearish. Despite that, Nymex Henry Hub futures went — dare we say — a little crazy this week in terms of volatility. After a massive run-up mid week,
Schork: “Nymex natgas is a bubble”
There were some very volatile moves higher in Nymex natural gas futures on Monday.For those who might be interpreting those swings as the makings of a genuine bull market, we thought we’d present some of Tuesday’s commentary on the subject.
Natgas shoots up 11%
Natural gas took on a sudden life of its own on Monday, shooting up more than 11 per cent in London afternoon trade:
Here’s how that move looks over a longer duration:
As can be seen that follows a 15 per cent move higher on Thursday and a 9 per cent correction lower on Friday — all in all making for some pretty volatile trade in natural gas of late:
Why the UNG is issuing new units
In case you missed the news, the United States Natural Gas Fund — the exchanged-traded-fund — posted a note to the SEC on Friday saying it planned to restart the issue of creation baskets once again.
Natural gas comeback not exactly what it seems
Natural gas staged a small comeback last week, inciting some speculation within the blogosphere that a renewed bull market might be under way in the commodity. Evidence for this, say commenters, is the now heady height of the gas-to-oil ratio above the 20x mark.
HFT in commodity ETFs
When looking through the top holdings of the Powershares DB double long crude ETC, the leveraged commodity ETF that is about to be liquidated, we were intrigued to discover that the largest owner of units was one EWT LLC,
That commodity ETF effect, in grains
There’s been a spate of commotion this week in the world of commodity ETFs, or ETPs (exchange traded products) as they are fast becoming known.
It comes in the shape of a CFTC ruling that resulted in two Deutsche Bank PowerShares commodity funds,
Things looking ugly for the UNG
Last week, prominent oil-industry financier Matt Simmons, CEO of Simmons & Company International, weighed in on the UNG/commodity exchange-traded-fund (ETF) debate by posting the following missive to a handful of recipients:
Ice-y tactics in commodities
We just spotted Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher’s view on ETFs in the commodity space:
Changes to Exchange Traded Commodity Funds May be Required
A recent phenomenon has been the emergence and growth of Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”) that invest in commodity futures.
Evil commodities speculators in the dock
The CFTC hearings into the evil commodity speculators have got under way in Washington. Those testifying on Tuesday include:
Panel One: Jeff Sprecher, Intercontinental Exchange and Terry Duffy,
The ETF blowup begins
H/T Zerohedge for drawing attention to the fact that UBS has suspended purchases of leveraged and inverse ETFs. We’ve now got the official statement from UBS:
“UBS Wealth Management Americas has suspended purchases of leveraged and inverse ETFs to our clients,
UNG goes OTC
Bloomberg reports the United States Natural Gas exchange traded-fund, which has been buying Nymex and ICE natural gas swaps since at least the beginning of June, has now been pushed into the world of OTC bilateral swaps.
More weirdness in the UNG
The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) exchange-traded continues to mystify, this time by cutting positions over the last few days just when you would expect it not t0: that is, the day that natural gas futures soared by 8.43 per cent (see below chart).
The problem with commodity ETFs
The day ahead of the United States Natural Gas (UNG) ETF’s futures roll from the July to August contract, Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix — who has inadvertently become a bit of a lone crusader in the mission to expose the influence of exchange traded funds on commodity markets — presents an impressive summary of the story so far.
Strange deviations at the UNG ETF
We’re not sure what to make of this, and perhaps the data is misleading. But there have been some very strange things going on in the world of NAV/closing price deviations at the United States Natural Gas (UNG) ETF of late.
United States Oil Fund, redux
We noted on Monday to what degree the United States Oil Fund (USO) ETF had reduced its positions in WTI front-month futures since February and how that has coincided with a not disproportionate build-up in positions of the United States Natural Gas fund (UNG),