Are Oil Prices Rigged?

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The futures markets is a closed book that needs to be opened beyond price transparency to participant transparency. After each contract has expired, NYMEX and other exchanges should reveal the participants in each trade. Tear down the wall of anonymity, and long positions will, we believe, connect back to oil suppliers, who should theoretically be sellers of oil, not buyers.

Is this vulnerability a reality? Is economics so wrong in applying its supply-demand theory that we might confuse corrupt manipulation with fair pricing? There's motive, opportunity, and greed at play. Why would we expect anything else?

Ari J. Officer studies financial mathematics at Stanford University. Garrett J. Hayes studies materials science and engineering at Stanford University