Rogue trades cost oil broker $10m 投机交易导致石油经纪人损失一千万

A rogue¹ trader at a London oil broker² caused his employer to lose $10m (£6m) after making unauthorised trades.

伦敦一位石油经纪人的投机商人因一场非认可交易导致他的雇主损失一千万美元。

Oil is the world's most heavily traded commodity

PVM Oil Futures³ said it was a "victim of unauthorised trading" on Tuesday, 30 June, and said it was now conducting a full investigation⁴.

The rogue trader, believed to be Steve Perkins, has been suspended.

PVM said it had informed the Financial Services Authority and the InterContinental Exchange (ICE), the location for much European oil trade.

The trades are thought to have caused a jump in the price of Brent crude oil on Tuesday. PVM said it was now conducting business as normal.

"As a result of a series of unauthorised trades, substantial volumes of futures contracts were held by PVM. When this was discovered, the positions were closed in an orderly fashion. PVM suffered a loss totalling a little under $10m," the company said in a statement.

"There are a range of procedures that are followed to look at trading patterns, price movement and levels of activity," explained David Peniket, the president of ICE Futures Europe, which trades futures and energy and commodity contracts.

"It will investigate and follow up, and where appropriate, action will be taken," he added.

Rogue trade

On Tuesday morning, the price of Brent crude rose about $2 a barrel in the space of an hour, hitting $73.50 a barrel before reversing sharply in volatile⁵（反复无常的，挥发性的） trade.

In that time, contracts for 16 million barrels of oil changed hands - 32 times the normal level - equivalent to（等于） double the daily production of Saudi Arabia.

By the time PVM sold the futures contracts the trader had bought, the price had fallen, which is why PVM booked losses of $10m, Nick McGregor at Redmayne Bentley told the BBC.

"In the very small hours, while volumes are relatively⁶ low during Asian trading because most of London is asleep, an awful lot of business went through and as it turns out it all came from the same source," Mr McGregor said.

"This all happened within an hour at about two o'clock in the morning, and of course in a thin market at that sort of time, it doesn't take an awful lot to move the price."

With volume so thin, the trade stood out（突出）, which is why the "rogue trade" has emerged so quickly, he added.

"Firms have systems to pick up oddities（奇异，奇妙） and anomalies（反常，异常）,but of course at two o'clock in the morning, I am sure it rang a little bell. The question is how fast were they able to get on top of it and deal with it," he said.

Oil is the world's most heavily traded commodity（商品，日用品）, with trading centred on the ICE in London and the New York Mercantile Exchange or Nymex.

Brokerages like PVM place orders on behalf of large banks and hedge funds（套利基金）.

On Friday morning, Brent crude oil hovered⁷ above $66 a barrel in light holiday trading.