Bubble Pricker

I am looking to buy more over the next few weeks. I am also looking forward to my first monthly distributions from the ones I bought earlier this month

Some joker is bidding 62.11 ahead of me. Who is the culprit? Step forward.

Too busy trading gold I'll call you back

You need to open a SIPP with a broker that deals in Canadian shares. I use www.epml.com as a SIPP provider and www.sucden.co.uk as a broker. You can trade just about anything under the sun in a SIPP, definitely anything listed on on any stock exchange in the world. If your company makes a 5% contribution to a pension, it most likely makes it to a set provider, not to the SIPP of your choice. What you need to do is wait for a while until the employer contribution has built up some fund with the provider, and then transfer the funds to your SIPP. You have a legal right to transfer your pension fund to any other provider or SIPP at any time, and nobody can stop you from that. Employers will normally say they will only pay into the plan provider by their chosen provider, but nobody can stop you from transferring afterwards. I sweep my Standard Life pension account clean once a year and transfer it to my SIPP.

I called for a quote from the NYMEX floor today and the spread was suprisingly narrow. 63.35-63.65. I am now bidding 62.10 on this contract GTC and will see what happens.

CNM.UN: Net Asset Value (November 2, 2006) NAV: $0.29 Previous NAV: $1.70

Yogi, is the same stuff as here: http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=1044

If you are UK domicilied (if you and your parents grew up here), then taxable like any other income. If you are not UK domiciled, tax free in the UK if income not remitted to the UK. Taxation in Canada is up to Candian tax law.

There are no mini futures on this contract. The mini futures are only for the near months. In any event, the mini futures are still $500 per $, i.e. half the size of the main future. There is no borrowing cost on a future contract. The cost of carry is included in the future price. You can always ask your spread betting company if they will offer you a trade on a fraction of the main future. It does not cost to ask.

Chart? No problemo: Here is the Dec 2012 chart (this contract has only existed for 10 months) And here is the Dec 2011 contract (which has been around for two years) for some longer data series.

No, only if the price drops a lot, not if the broker needs some cash.

The 2012 contract is not a trade that one would move in and out of, and I did not suggest that. It would be a long term trade, betting on oil prices being much higher in 2012 than now. It is true though, to see this trade through to 2012, you would potentially need to stump up a lot of margin if oil falls significantly in the meantime. There are no options on the 2012 contracts. However, NYMEX has a facility for OTC option contracts, so a good commodity broker might be able to find a counterparty for a 2012 call option.

First, go to http://www.nymex.com/lsco_fut_csf.aspx?product=CL to see all the available future contracts. The Dec 2012 contract is the last one. It's actually now up to $64. To trade this, you need a "real" commodities broker (for example http://www.sucden.co.uk), not a spreadbetting company. Sucden will open a private client account from £5,000, and you will need that sort of money anyway as margin. Then you just tell the dealer you want to trade this contract, NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Dec 2012. Trading hours are roughly between 14:00 and 18:00 UK time. There will be an initial margin requirement of about $3500, plus any additional margin, should the price of oil fall by more than $3.50 from here. The contract is worth the price quoted (e.g. $64) multiplied by 1000, so for example $64,000 if the price is $64. You do not have to pay the money now, only the margin needs to be paid and any additional margin, should the price of oil fall. If in Dec 2012, oil is trading at $100, you sell the contract and you will receive the difference to the opening, being $36, i.e $36,000 wil be credited to your account. You can close the contract at any time, you do not have to wait until 2012. However, the contract may behave in a different way to the near month contract, so for example if the near month contract rises to $80 next year, that does not automatically mean that the Dec 2012 contract also rises to that level, because the market might believe that oil will fall back again by 2012. (If this happens, it is called backwardation). The closer we get to expiry, i.e. Dec 2012, the more the price of the contract will gravitate towards the near month price of oil. The risk is that oil may not rise as expected, and fall instead. There are two issues. The first is that oil could eventually end up at say $100 in 2012, but in the meantime falls to, say, $30. That would result in a margin call, you would have to pay in about $30,000 of margin. If the price recovers by 2012, you get this money back. The second issue is that oil might not rise by 2012 at all, ending up, say, at $50. In that case you would close the contract at a loss and be debited with the difference, in this example, $14,000 (which would be taken out of the margin already paid). So you need to have the financial stamina to see the contract through to 2012, and oil will actually have to have gone up by 2012. Any more questions?

Whilst all eyes have been on the oil price for the near month, the price of the furthest contract out (Dec 2012) has also been falling, much to my amazement. It is one thing for near month oil prices to fluctuate, in line with short term supply and demand, inventories and the gepolitical tides. But why on earth does the market believe oil will be hardly more expensive in Dec 2012 than it is now? Surely, believers in peak oil and oil at $200 within the next 5 years must see this as the perfect trading opportunity. The Dec 2012 contract traded at around $62 today. I am very tempted to buy and let simmer for 6 years. Any views?

((MERGED with Yogi's thread on Canadian Royalty Trusts)) ======= Has anyone read the report on Canadian Energy Trusts in Peter Schiff's article on Financialsense? https://www.europac.net/report/download_energy_again.asp Any opinions on here about these?