The oil sector is buzzing with rumors at the moment, and, as usual, the financial news channels have absolutely no idea how to handle it.
One day, they'll be talking about OPEC abandoning its oil deal and letting oil prices fall.
The next, they'll be all over a drop in stored U.S. oil driving prices up.
You'd be forgiven for not knowing what on Earth is going on and thinking you should just stay out of the energy market altogether.
But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, now is a great time to get in. You see, there's a reason why oil prices nosedived so fast recently...
And why they're recovering at record speed.
Here's what my contacts are telling me...
Why You Can't Trust the Mainstream Financial News
Last October, you saw what a French contact had shared with me about oil price manipulation. Now, "manipulation" is a serious word. It's not something I throw around lightly.
But so is what some companies are doing in the oil markets today.
You see, back then the name of the game was betting on oil prices to fall and then scaring people to make it happen. The Chicken Littles from The-Sky-Is-Falling Brokerage, as I like to call them, have been making a handy profit this way for years.
Some of that still happens. When watching or reading financial news, always be sure to check whether the person selling you doom and gloom about oil has any personal stake in it. Too often, TV channels will require so-called experts to say whether they have invested in oil or oil companies, but won't ask whether they (or their families) are shorting oil and making money on its fall.
The same goes for larger companies. Be careful when listening to an investment bank or hedge fund release its analysis on oil for free. Remember, these are companies. Their goal is to make money. If they are giving you their thoughts on where oil is going, you can bet they're hoping you'll believe them - and that they stand ready to profit if you do.
Investment banks, for example, are some of the largest short players on oil in the market. But trying to convince the public that oil is about to crash in order to make money off that crash is one thing.
The price manipulation my contacts are telling me about now is reaching outrageous proportions.
And I've been in this business a long time...
I've Never Seen Oil Price Manipulation Like This Before
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Today's oil price manipulation, my sources tell me, looks different.
Step one involves spreading rumors designed to send oil prices down. It doesn't matter how far-fetched they are, as long as they work. Maybe something suggesting that oil demand is crashing, or insinuating that OPEC's deal is about to collapse.
In other words, exactly the kind of rumors we saw in the run up to the oil "flash" crash in early May. And just as we saw then, these rumors have no connection with the underlying situation in the oil market.
But as long as enough people believe in it, prices go down.
That's when the manipulators step in and start buying up oil on the cheap. This oil goes into storage, preferably somewhere where that doesn't have to be reported. Then the waiting game begins.
As this oil is withheld from the market and the rumors dissipate, oil prices start rising again - just as they've been doing for days now. Once prices have recovered enough, the manipulators sell the "missing" oil they were hiding in storage at the new, higher price.
The telltale signs that this is happening is a rapid drop in oil prices on no real news and then an almost immediate recovery of prices. In short, exactly what we've been seeing this month.
But don't worry - it's the end of the road for these manipulators...
Why Oil Prices Are Headed Back Up
When oil prices briefly crashed earlier this month, most hedge funds abandoned their big bets on oil going up. But few, if any, of them made bets on oil prices going down. Instead, the money that left the market is sitting on the sidelines, waiting.
That's a clear sign these shorts weren't based on the fundamental facts of oil supply and demand. Instead, they're based on the hope that manipulating prices will work.
This lack of new bets on oil falling spells trouble for the price manipulators...
And along with the extension of the OPEC deal to cap/cut oil production, which now has the support of both Saudi Arabia and Russia, it means oil prices now look set to recover - and more - from here, making this a great time for some long oil plays.
Thursday morning, when we get word from the OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, I'll be in touch with my Oil & Energy Investor readers to tell them exactly what they should know about the latest developments emanating from the cartel and how to profit.
Click here to get those updates as soon as they're released. They're absolutely free of charge.
Oil is far from the only energy opportunity Kent's tracking right now. He's researching a huge new development in a fuel source they're calling "oro blanco" that's generating "oil rush"-style profit potential... without the oil. Click here watch his presentation.
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About the Author
Dr. Kent Moors is an internationally recognized expert in oil and natural gas policy, risk assessment, and emerging market economic development. He serves as an advisor to many U.S. governors and foreign governments. Kent details his latest global travels in his free Oil & Energy Investor e-letter. He makes specific investment recommendations in his newsletter, the Energy Advantage. For more active investors, he issues shorter-term trades in his Energy Inner Circle.