The time honoured practice with spec oil plays is to buy early...

The time honoured practice with spec oil plays is to buy early before rig arrives and price starts to run, then sell down half for a free carry on the balance or all and lock in a good profit without risking the result at all. Usually the closer to target the higher the price gets in anticipation so the story goes.

It looks to me that many were holding off to see how high the price would get before selling down while those that wanted to get set have done so before any last minute frenzied speculation takes place. Given we are getting close to target zone the "sell halfers" are overwhelming the last minute desperates who quite rightly are already set from earlier.

This is a large gamble basically and I expect many who averaged down in the teens will continue to reduce their bet before target depths are met (including long suffering Xtract etc).

Goodluck holders, god knows punters need a win after the last 12 months of hell.