What is Driving Oil Futures Prices? Fundamentals Versus Speculation
29 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2011
Date Written: August 16, 2011
Abstract
In this paper we analyse the relative importance of fundamental and speculative demand on oil futures price levels and volatility. In a first step, we present a theoretical heterogeneous agent model of the oil futures market based on noise trading. We use the model to study the interaction between the oil futures price, volatility, developments in underlying fundamentals and the presence of different types of agents. We distinguish between commercial traders (who are physically involved in oil) and non-commercial traders (who are not involved physically with oil). Based on the theoretical model we find that a multiplicity of equilibria can exist. More specifically, on the one hand, if we have high fundamental volatility, high uncertainty about future oil demand, and the oil price deviation from fundamentals or the price trend is small, we will only have commercial traders entering the market. On the other hand, if a large unexpected shock to the oil spot price occurs then all traders will enter the market. In a next step, we empirically test the model by estimating a Markov-switching model with time-varying transition probabilities. We estimate the model over the period January 1992 - April 2011. We find that up to 2004, movements in oil futures prices are best explained by underlying fundamentals. However, since 2004 regime switching has become more frequent and the chartist regime has been the most prominent.
Keywords: Markov switching models, oil prices, speculation
JEL Classification: D84, Q33, Q41, G15
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Imperfect Competition and the Effects of Energy Price Increases on Economic Activity
-
Not All Oil Price Shocks are Alike: Disentangling Demand and Supply Shocks in the Crude Oil Market
By Lutz Kilian
-
Do We Really Know that Oil Caused the Great Stagflation? A Monetary Alternative
By Robert Barsky and Lutz Kilian
-
Oil and the Macroeconomy Since the 1970s
By Robert Barsky and Lutz Kilian
-
Oil and the Macroeconomy Since the 1970s
By Robert Barsky and Lutz Kilian
-
The Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Price Shocks: Why are the 2000s so Different from the 1970s?
By Olivier J. Blanchard and Jordi Galí
-
The Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Shocks: Why are the 2000s so Different from the 1970s?
By Olivier J. Blanchard and Jordi Galí
-
The Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Shocks: Why are the 2000s so Different from the 1970s?
By Olivier J. Blanchard and Jordi Galí
-
Exogenous Oil Supply Shocks: How Big are They and How Much Do They Matter for the Us Economy?
By Lutz Kilian