IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v76y2022ics030142072200054x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Arbitrage breakdown in WTI crude oil futures: An analysis of the events on April 20, 2020

Author

Listed:
  • Burns, Christopher B.
  • Kane, Stephen

Abstract

This study provides novel analysis of the events in the WTI crude oil futures market on April 20, 2020. We detail how the arbitrage linkages between the NYMEX CL contract and the e-mini NYMEX QM contract broke down and report new information about the unusual market conditions on that date. After establishing that most price discovery happens in the more liquid CL contract, we show how these two contracts decoupled in the May 2020 spot period. Next, using supervisory CFTC data, we document that the typical arbitragers did not participate in the WTI crude oil markets on April 20. This change in the composition of arbitragers had important implications for the unusual settlement prices in the CL contract. Third, we use generalizable non-parametric methods to rank the values observed in terms of price deviations, realized volatility and spreads to similar crude oils. We find the May 2020 spot month to have the largest values of these measures across all spot periods from 2011 to 2020. Finally, we show that natural gas futures markets did not experience a similar price decoupling, suggesting the lack of storage capacity at Cushing played an important role in the WTI crude negative price event.

Suggested Citation

  • Burns, Christopher B. & Kane, Stephen, 2022. "Arbitrage breakdown in WTI crude oil futures: An analysis of the events on April 20, 2020," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:76:y:2022:i:c:s030142072200054x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142072200054X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2022.102605?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nikolaos Milonas & Thomas Henker, 2001. "Price spread and convenience yield behaviour in the international oil market," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 23-36.
    2. Ing-Haw Cheng & Wei Xiong, 2014. "Financialization of Commodity Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 419-441, December.
    3. Bahattin Büyük şahin & Thomas K. Lee & James T. Moser & Michel A. Robe, 2013. "Physical Markets, Paper Markets and the WTI-Brent Spread," The Energy Journal, , vol. 34(3), pages 129-152, July.
    4. Gonzalo, Jesus & Granger, Clive W J, 1995. "Estimation of Common Long-Memory Components in Cointegrated Systems," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(1), pages 27-35, January.
    5. Philip Garcia & Scott H. Irwin & Aaron Smith, 2015. "Futures Market Failure?," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 97(1), pages 40-64.
    6. Yang, Dong-Xiao & Wu, Bi-Bo & Tong, Jing-Yang, 2021. "Dynamics and causality of oil price shocks on commodities: Quantile-on-quantile and causality-in-quantiles methods," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Eom, Cheoljun & Kaizoji, Taisei & Scalas, Enrico, 2019. "Fat tails in financial return distributions revisited: Evidence from the Korean stock market," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 526(C).
    8. Clark-Joseph, Adam D. & Ye, Mao & Zi, Chao, 2017. "Designated market makers still matter: Evidence from two natural experiments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(3), pages 652-667.
    9. Troster, Victor & Shahbaz, Muhammad & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2018. "Renewable energy, oil prices, and economic activity: A Granger-causality in quantiles analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 440-452.
    10. Wai‐Man Liu & Emma Schultz & John Swieringa, 2015. "Price Dynamics in Global Crude Oil Markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 148-162, February.
    11. Chen, Zhonglu & Ye, Yong & Li, Xiafei, 2022. "Forecasting China's crude oil futures volatility: New evidence from the MIDAS-RV model and COVID-19 pandemic," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Ederington, Louis H. & Fernando, Chitru S. & Lee, Thomas K. & Linn, Scott C. & Zhang, Huiming, 2021. "The relation between petroleum product prices and crude oil prices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Juan Cabrera & Tao Wang & Jian Yang, 2009. "Do futures lead price discovery in electronic foreign exchange markets?," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 137-156, February.
    14. Thomas V. Schwarz & Andrew C. Szakmary, 1994. "Price discovery in petroleum markets: Arbitrage, cointegration, and the time interval of analysis," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(2), pages 147-167, April.
    15. S. Gurcan Gulen, 1997. "Regionalization in the World Crude Oil Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 109-126.
    16. Miao, Hong & Ramchander, Sanjay & Wang, Tianyang & Yang, Dongxiao, 2017. "Influential factors in crude oil price forecasting," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 77-88.
    17. Eom, Cheoljun & Kaizoji, Taisei & Livan, Giacomo & Scalas, Enrico, 2021. "Limitations of portfolio diversification through fat tails of the return Distributions: Some empirical evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    18. Buncic, Daniel & Gisler, Katja I.M., 2017. "The role of jumps and leverage in forecasting volatility in international equity markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-19.
    19. Hasbrouck, Joel, 1995. "One Security, Many Markets: Determining the Contributions to Price Discovery," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1175-1199, September.
    20. M. A. Adelman, 1984. "International Oil Agreements," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 1-10.
    21. Param Silvapulle & Imad A. Moosa, 1999. "The relationship between spot and futures prices: Evidence from the crude oil market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 175-193, April.
    22. Irwin, Scott H., 2020. "Trilogy for troubleshooting convergence: Manipulation, structural imbalance, and storage rates," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    23. Elliott, Graham, 1999. "Efficient Tests for a Unit Root When the Initial Observation Is Drawn from Its Unconditional Distribution," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(3), pages 767-783, August.
    24. Baur, Dirk G., 2013. "The structure and degree of dependence: A quantile regression approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 786-798.
    25. Weiner, R.J., 1991. "Is the World Oil Market "One Great Pool?"," Papers 9120, Laval - Recherche en Energie.
    26. Robert J. Weiner, 1991. "Is the World Oil Market "One Great Pool"?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 95-108.
    27. Kane, Stephen, 2004. "Scientific methods in finance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 105-118.
    28. Yiuman Tse & Tatyana Zabotina, 2004. "Do designated market makers improve liquidity in open‐outcry futures markets?," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(5), pages 479-502, May.
    29. Bianchi, Robert J. & Fan, John Hua & Todorova, Neda, 2020. "Financialization and de-financialization of commodity futures: A quantile regression approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    30. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    31. Hiemstra, Craig & Jones, Jonathan D, 1994. "Testing for Linear and Nonlinear Granger Causality in the Stock Price-Volume Relation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1639-1664, December.
    32. Kawaller, Ira G & Koch, Paul D & Koch, Timothy W, 1987. "The Temporal Price Relationship between S&P 500 Futures and the S and P 500 Index," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(5), pages 1309-1329, December.
    33. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    34. Hong Miao & Sanjay Ramchander & Tianyang Wang & Jian Yang, 2018. "The impact of crude oil inventory announcements on prices: Evidence from derivatives markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 38-65, January.
    35. Tse, Yiuman & Xiang, Ju, 2005. "Market quality and price discovery: Introduction of the E-mini energy futures," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 164-179, December.
    36. Galay, Gregory, 2019. "Are crude oil markets cointegrated? Testing the co-movement of weekly crude oil spot prices," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    37. John Elder, Hong Miao, and Sanjay Ramchander, 2013. "Jumps in Oil Prices: The Role of Economic News," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chang, Chiu-Lan, 2024. "Extreme events, economic uncertainty and speculation on occurrences of price bubbles in crude oil futures," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiaojie Xu, 2018. "Cointegration and price discovery in US corn cash and futures markets," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1889-1923, December.
    2. Xu, Xiaojie, 2014. "Price Discovery in U.S. Corn Cash and Futures Markets: The Role of Cash Market Selection," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 169809, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Bravo Caro, José Manuel & Golpe, Antonio A. & Iglesias, Jesús & Vides, José Carlos, 2020. "A new way of measuring the WTI – Brent spread. Globalization, shock persistence and common trends," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Yuksel Haliloglu, Ebru & Sahin, Serkan & Berument, M. Hakan, 2021. "Brent–Dubai oil spread: Basic drivers," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 492-505.
    5. Martin T. Bohl & Alexander Pütz & Pierre L. Siklos & Christoph Sulewski, 2018. "Information Transmission under Increasing Political Tension – Evidence for the Berlin Produce Exchange 1887-1896," CQE Working Papers 7618, Center for Quantitative Economics (CQE), University of Muenster.
    6. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Davide Ciferri & Alessandro Girardi, 2014. "Time-Varying Spot and Futures Oil Price Dynamics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(1), pages 78-97, February.
    7. Kuck, Konstantin & Schweikert, Karsten, 2017. "A Markov regime-switching model of crude oil market integration," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 16-31.
    8. Muzhao Jin & Youwei Li & Jianxin Wang & Yung Chiang Yang, 2018. "Price discovery in the Chinese gold market," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(10), pages 1262-1281, October.
    9. van Huellen, Sophie, 2019. "Price discovery in commodity futures and cash markets with heterogeneous agents," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 1-13.
    10. Duan, Kun & Ren, Xiaohang & Wen, Fenghua & Chen, Jinyu, 2023. "Evolution of the information transmission between Chinese and international oil markets: A quantile-based framework," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    11. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Sharma, Susan Sunila, 2018. "An analysis of time-varying commodity market price discovery," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 122-133.
    12. Kaufmann, Robert K. & Dees, Stephane & Mann, Micheal, 2009. "Horizontal and vertical transmissions in the US oil supply chain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 644-650, February.
    13. Kao, Chung-Wei & Wan, Jer-Yuh, 2009. "Information transmission and market interactions across the Atlantic -- an empirical study on the natural gas market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 152-161, January.
    14. Jing Hao & Xiong Xiong & Feng He & Feng Ma, 2019. "Price Discovery in the Chinese Stock Index Futures Market," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(13), pages 2982-2996, October.
    15. Bohl, Martin T. & Siklos, Pierre L. & Stefan, Martin & Wellenreuther, Claudia, 2020. "Price discovery in agricultural commodity markets: Do speculators contribute?," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    16. Zhuo Chen & Bo Yan & Hanwen Kang & Liyu Liu, 2023. "Asymmetric price adjustment and price discovery in spot and futures markets of agricultural commodities," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 27(1), pages 139-162, February.
    17. Asche, Frank & Misund, Bard & Oglend, Atle, 2015. "The Spot-Forward Relationship in the Atlantic Salmon Market," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2015/16, University of Stavanger.
    18. Xu Xiaojie, 2018. "Linear and Nonlinear Causality between Corn Cash and Futures Prices," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, November.
    19. Dimpfl, Thomas & Flad, Michael & Jung, Robert C., 2017. "Price discovery in agricultural commodity markets in the presence of futures speculation," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 50-62.
    20. Xiaojie Xu, 2018. "Intraday price information flows between the CSI300 and futures market: an application of wavelet analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1267-1295, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:76:y:2022:i:c:s030142072200054x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.