Risky trades, sleepless nights

In the second of a six-part series, our trader keeps his eye on the weather

This article is the second of a six-part series, "A day in the life… of an oil trader" YOU SPEND a helluva lot of time trying to figure out the “job of the market”. Inevitably, in the physical and financial oil markets, situations come up that aren’t economically sustainable. Since so much influences the price – from fundamentals to positioning or things that are not predictable, like geopolitics or weather – you have to be constantly focused. In the summer, people are paying attention to day-to-day gasoline demand or preparing for hurricane season. Some are also looking at the upcoming winter season. A while back many were content with total US distillate inventories being higher than the p