NG, CL both rallying quite strongly, setting up the stage for what is known as the "piercing line" candle reversal pattern at a point where price could be said to have found "support" (thus implying the ability to rally higher).

Sometimes Occam's law makes sense.

Given two equally predictive theories, choose the simplest.

In this case, the simplest is that regular traders are the principle drivers of energy markets whether energy markets go up or down.

I've mentioned a number of times over the weekend that my expectation was for a short covering rally if not a "common sense" rally ... and here it is.

Long energy, short broader markets I remain.

If we don't hear of any major trading firm with losses, then who has the deep pockets to lose so much???

in my short time in this forum, i have posted maybe a billion urls. nobody has been able to refute them. if you object to a position of mine, you are certainly encouraged to post urls that contradict mine.

maybe we'd both learn something, on the off chance that anybody wants to learn anything that gores an ox or two, or threatens a sacred cow, or mentions a prominent but ignored elephant in the room.

that's the biggest problem with this whole operation: it was conceived by armchair warriors whose arrogance and hubris are much greater than their wisdom. they figured they could pull it off, and they figured they could cover it all up, and they figured they had enough juice to bull on through no matter what. the official conspiracy theory will hold, by the grace of god, the washington post and the new york times.

the problem i have to think about is this: what caused such desperate, reckless, foolhardy behavior? is peak oil much closer than we think? or can we simply write the whole thing off to egomania...?

i wish i knew. but the bones of it are out there, all you have to do is dig.