“For now at least, it has become hard to risk capital on the price of oil with as much conviction as in the past.”—Andy Hall, famed oil trader, on shuttering his oil hedge fund. If Andy Hall is confused, what does that say about the rest of us? This checklist tries to identify some of the anomalies in the global crude oil marketplace which presumably will ultimately get resolved even if they don’t seem to have any resolution at the moment. So here’s an oil watcher’s late August list of things to keep an eye on: Brent versus WTI spread At well over $4 and change, why is the Brent versus WTI spread so large, the largest since early 2015? Is it increased European and Asian demand as a result of more robust economic growth or weaker US demand and higher US production—or a combination or more precisely what […]