An increasingly illiquid oil market may lead to wild price swings. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, traders and speculators have been cutting their open interest in crude oil futures. Traders have slashed open interest in oil futures to a seven-year-low. Sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the potential of up to 3 million bpd loss of Russian supply, the extreme volatility in oil markets is here to stay, as traders have slashed open interest in oil futures to a seven-year-low. The less liquid market is thus more prone to wild price swings, as seen in just two weeks, in which oil jumped and slumped by $40 a barrel in both directions. Since the beginning of March, oil prices have been more volatile than in the 2020 crash at the onset of COVID and the start of the 2008 financial crisis. The CBOE Crude Oil […]