Comment se battent les records
Alexandre Delaigue vendredi 4 janvier 2008 14:08 BlaBlabla

Le pétrole a donc franchi la barre "psychologique" des 100 dollars. Ce qui ne signifie rien en soi : ce qui compte, c'est que la tendance à la hausse et au maintien d'un prix élevé se poursuive. Si l'on comptait en binaire, ou en hexadécimal, cette valeur particulière n'aurait pas suscité tant d'articles sentencieux sur le thème du "nous basculons dans une nouvelle ère". D'ailleurs, si on comptait autrement qu'en base 10, cette valeur particulière n'aurait pas été atteinte à ce moment :

The man behind the record rise in oil prices to $100 a barrel was a lone trader, seeking bragging rights and a minute of fame, market watchers say. (...) A single trader bid up the price by buying a modest lot and then sold it immediately at a loss, they claim. The New York Mercantile Exchange said that US crude oil futures traded just once in triple figures on Wednesday.

Some analysts questioned the validity of the trade, though their concerns faded as oil set a record on Thursday. New York light sweet crude climbed to a new high of $100.05 a barrel on Thursday. On Wednesday, one floor trader bought 1,000 barrels, the smallest amount permitted, and sold it immediately for $99.40 at a $600 loss, said Stephen Schork, a former floor trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the editor of an oil market newsletter. "They absolutely overpaid," he told Radio Four's Today Programme. "He paid $600 for the right to tell his grandchildren that he was the first in the world to buy $100 oil."

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