Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Take Your Profit

I'm recommending selling oil and taking the profit. I realize this would have been a great move on Friday, but I'd rather lose a few percent from a price decline than lose ten or fifteen percent from selling too early. It seems that OPEC is willing to increase supply if needed:

"Iran said on Tuesday Opec would inject more crude oit to the market if it was needed, the official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Yarjani, head of Opec affairs at Iran's oil ministry as saying."

"'In case the oil market needs it, Opec will inject more oil into it,' Yarjani said."

OPEC knows a few things. First of all, the members know that increasing energy costs cause slower economic growth. Slower economic growth means OPEC would sell less oil, albeit at a higher price. But if economic growth were to grind to a halt, OPEC would sell virtually no oil. In addition to this, OPEC realizes that if they increase supply which creates downward pressure on prices, then the people will buy more. This could lead to greater profits than selling less oil at a higher price. Of course, this is all me hypothesizing about their intentions.

I recommend selling your crude and wait for a jump in point at the end of the year or the beginning of next year. As of this writing, crude futures are selling at 73.28.

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