The group of traders, many of whom are based in the same Essex village, grabbed headlines around the world on April 20, 2020, when they made £570million by betting on the price of oil.
Nine independent traders in Essex made between $30m and $100m each
Group including Paul ‘Cuddles’ Commins are mainly people in their 20s and 30s
Traders are affiliated with Vega Capital London, which has a small Essex office
So-called oil oiks claim they legally bought oil futures knowing price would fall
Phenomena of negative oil prices on April 20 meant traders got paid fortunes
ILLUSTRATION: SOPHY HOLLINGTON FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK
By Liam Vaughan, Kit Chellel, and Benjamin BainDecember 10, 2020, 12:01 AM EST
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Among the many previously unthinkable moments of 2020, one of the strangest occurred on April 20, when the price of crude oil fell below zero. West Texas Intermediate futures, the most popular instrument used to trade the commodity, had started the day at $18 a barrel. That was already low, but prices kept tumbling until, at 2:08 p.m. New York time, they went negative.
Amazingly, that meant anyone selling oil had to pay someone else to take it off their hands. Then the crude market collapsed completely, falling almost $40 in 20 minutes, to close at –$38. It was the lowest price for oil in the 138-year history of the New York Mercantile Exchange and in all likelihood the lowest price in the millennia since humans first began burning the stuff for heat and light.
Nine Essex oil traders made $660m when prices plunged into the red
Three traders each made more than $100m earlier this year when US crude prices went below zero for first time
11 December 2020 • 7:33pm
Nine independent traders operating from their homes in Essex made $660m (£500m) in a single day of trading oil futures when prices briefly went negative earlier this year.
The traders, all affiliated with the small trading firm Vega Capital London, hit the jackpot by capitalising on complex oil market mechanisms to sell oil contracts on falling prices and buy with prices as low as minus $37.
Aristos Ari Demetriou, 31; Elliot Pickering, 25, and Connor Younger, 22, pocketed more than $100m each, according to reports, even as other investors lost millions as prices fell.