Martin Kronicle

The amount of oil that “spills” every 24 hours can produce enough gasoline for me to drive my car around the equator approximately 648 times – every day.

So far, I’m looking at over 8,400 trips through today.

At a leakage rate of 210,000 gallons of oil per day, that’s the equivalent of 5,000 barrels, or 5 NYMEX Light Crude futures contracts worth of physical.

Since April 22, that has equated to 65 contracts worth of physical.

Financial Times reporter Stacy-Marie Ishmael interviews Michael Martin regarding OTC derivatives reform and trader compensation at the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills, April 28, 2010.

I think Stacy-Marie Ishmael is one of the most refreshing voices in financial journalism. I humbly suggest you follow her work.

Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Twitter

Watch her at the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills

Online News: The Frontier of Financial Journalism

Do Our Financial Models Still Work?

Read her at the Financial Times/Alphaville

(Click to enlarge)

Cocoa prices have rallied substantially since I wrote How To Marry Fundamental and Technical Analysis in Cocoa.

Besides the spreads, I noted that there was a 1-2-3 Trend Reversal underway in Cocoa. Every trader wants to pick a bottom to go long. While I understand that to be emotionally appealing, you can lose a ton by getting cute. You can see in the FutureSource chart, by following the rules, that the financial rewards can be worthwhile if you can be patient. Let the market activity unfold and act accordingly.

FutureSource Cocoa Settlement prices as of April 27:

(Click to enlarge)

When you compare Cocoa settlement prices from April 1 to April 27, you see that the spreads between contract months have come in also – they’ve narrowed.

(Click to enlarge)

If the demand for cocoa rises enough, you may see the market for cocoa change from what’s known as a carry-charge market (aka contango) to an inverted or market in backwardation. That means that the front months will be higher in price than each successive month.

The significance is that backwarded markets demand immediate delivery of existing production as fast as possible. In contrast, carry charge markets suggest storage.

The 1-2-3 Trend Reversal rules were first delineated in Methods of a Wall St. Master, by Victor Sperandeo. The rules are not particular to Cocoa and can be applied to any market.

Germany should not set the precedent of funding the PIIGS.

I’ll be at the Milken Global Conference this week and I have some great interviews lined up.

You can follow me on Twitter or send me questions @Martin_Kronicle. The hashtag is #gc2010.

Here is a detailed program of the speakers and topics for the 2010 Milken Global Conference.