Your Three Best Plays On Today’s “Range-Bound” Oil

We are in the early stages of what may be the most significant revision in energy investments to occur in a decade (or more), and for me, that has meant yet another day full of meetings. As we just adjourned for lunch, I took the opportunity to fill you in on what’s been going on here.

The situation remains fluid, although the financing involved is quite large and likely to come in stages.

As this unfolds, I will advise you of what is about to happen and how to play it. You will also be receiving a “heads up” as soon as the strategy has been settled.

Now, that may not happen until next week. For now, suffice to say that huge worldwide sources of funding are about to start investing globally – and especially in the United States – in what will be much more than just another merger and acquisition cycle.

But until I have concrete indicators to pass along, let’s today consider a more immediate concern: how to best play oil prices that keep bouncing up and down within a “range,” as they have this week.

It’s actually quite simple…

Oil Is Up 4% One Day, and Down 4% the Next

Here’s what I mean. Crude oil prices in New York dropped 4.4% Wednesday after a 4.6% rise on Tuesday. Thursday morning the price was rising again by some 2%.

Welcome to our latest period of “range-bound” oil.

On June 23, WTI (West Texas Intermediate, the oil grade used in setting futures contract prices on the NYMEX) eked past $50 a barrel. Yet since then, the price has declined 10.7% through close yesterday.

Now some observers had initially suggested there would be a rather straight line from $50 to the low $60s. After all, just about everybody (including myself) believe that is the level the market will realize in the fourth quarter of this year or the first of 2017.

However, I had suggested that we would approach $50 and then find some significant resistance there. My take was not that we would be then collapsing back to the $30s.