Financial Times, Lone trader seeks minute of fame:
“An independent trader apparently intent on securing his place in market history was responsible for oil prices briefly touching the unprecedented level of $100 a barrel - on the back of a single tiny trade, writes Javier Blas.
Some observers questioned the validity of the price mark when it emerged that the peak was the result of a trader - one of the “locals” who trade on their own money - buying from a colleague just 1,000 barrels of crude, the minimum allowed, industry insiders said. He sold them back a short while later for a small loss. The deal on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange was at a hefty premium to prevailing prices.
Stephen Schork, a former Nymex floor trader and editor of the oil-market Schork Report, said the price jump was due to a trader seeking his one minute of fame.
“A local trader just spent about $600 in a trading loss to buy the right to tell his grandchildren he was the one who did it,” Mr Schork said. “Probably he is framing right now the print reflecting the trade.”"
