Michael Selig said the Michael Selig CFTC oil probe is examining oil trading during the Iran war after at least 6 million barrels of crude were sold in two minutes on March 23. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has not announced any enforcement findings.
The chairman said Friday on Television that the agency’s enforcement division had been looking at the trades. He said, “Our enforcement division has been looking at all these trades” and “We take this stuff very seriously.”
March 23 Brent and West Texas Intermediate
The March 23 selling involved Brent and West Texas Intermediate futures. Trading volume in that two-minute window was more than 8.5 times the volume recorded during the same period over the preceding week.
The timing of those trades came shortly before Donald Trump backed away from threats to strike Iranian power plants. That sequence raised questions about whether some traders had advance knowledge of Trump’s plans, but Selig did not identify any traders involved.
Selig on market oversight
Selig said, “We are on top of this and, rest assured, people can have confidence in the markets as long as I'm in the seat.” He also said the CFTC was monitoring prediction markets for possible manipulation ahead of November's midterm elections.
For traders in Brent and West Texas Intermediate, the practical issue now is whether the two-minute surge was only unusual or whether it fit a pattern investigators can act on. The CFTC has not said when it will spell out its findings, and Selig did not disclose whether investigators had uncovered evidence of wrongdoing.
