Stop slick traders

It is absolutely apt for Peter Jones (Perspective, 20 January) to consider how “oil price fall pumps up speculation”, while at the same time shedding a welcome light on the arcane subject of oil futures.

However, one wonders to what extent hedging against price volatility smooths it out or exacerbates it.

Take for instance a certain kind of gambling game in which speculators bet against oil prices.

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Apparently there could be many times over more “paper barrels of oil” than the real stuff.

Surely the North Sea oil industry isn’t becoming just a bubble on a whirlwind of speculation.

Also, a complication is the foreign exchange rate as oil is traded mainly in US dollars.

Such a strategic resource is too valuable for the global economy to be open to market speculation.

Arguably a case could be made for the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund looking critically at the way oil is traded.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie