OPIS's Crash Course Podcast

April 20, 2020

Elaine Levin is quoted in Jeremiah Shelor’s article “Natural Gas Bulls End Week in Style as ‘Classic Short-Covering Rally’ Continues”:

Noting that open interest has been falling as prices have been going up, Powerhouse LLC President Elaine Levin described it as a “classic short-covering rally.”

“I think the market got very, very oversold,” Levin told NGI. “It looked like some of the specs were about as short as they’d been in a long time.”

The question moving forward will be whether new money enters the market to build on the momentum created by the short-covering rally, she said. From a technical standpoint, if the front month can settle above $2.500, a resistance level that, looking at the continuation chart, held firm back in July, then the next target for the bulls would be around $2.700, according to Levin.

“Fundamentally, there’s a lot of gas around, but even bear markets have corrections,” Levin said. “This is the start of one. The question is does it turn into something more substantial.”

Elaine Levin is quoted in Denton Cinquegrana‘s article “NYMEX Overview: Negative May WTI Numbers Get Attention; Most Action Is June“:

Most headlines tracking the oil industry will be about prices going negative for the first time ever in an epic sell-off that took May WTI to a low of negative $40.32/bbl.

While the sell-off in the May contract was indeed spectacular, most of the activity was in the June contract. In fact, June saw seven and a half times the amount of volume that May did as a mad dash for the exits for longs kept pushing prices lower and lower.

“It’s like when you call 1-800-GOT JUNK and you pay them to take your stuff out of your basement. This is the same thing,” Elaine Levin, president of commodity brokerage Powerhouse, said.

May WTI eventually settled today at minus $37.62/bbl, a loss of $55.90 with expiration for the contract slated for tomorrow. Although the losses for May topped 300%, the June contract saw losses closing on in 20% as the contract settled at $20.43/bbl, a loss of $4.60/bbl. Another bearish indication for the June contract is that the settlement was just marginally above the lows at $20.20/bbl.

August 30, 2018

William Wilson is quoted in Brian Whary’s article “Oil Hits Fresh Multi-Week Highs”:

“Given the strength that we see with [West Texas Intermediate] crude now over $70 bbl, and having broken above highs last seen at the end of July, we could be setting ourselves up to see some higher prices, especially in oil products,” said William Wilson, commodities broker for Washington, D.C.-based Powerhouse, a commodity hedge and trade advisory. “All of the recent headlines about global supply disruptions and the effect of Iran sanctions indeed have merit, so if you have any upside price risk whatsoever, you may want to get hedged because this market has shown some resilience given the recent price break outs.”

August 8, 2017

Elaine Levin, president at Powerhouse, a Washington DC-based

trading and risk management firm, says “On Friday the market made a new low, but it doesn’t have a lot of momentum behind it and Elliott Wave aside I am looking at momentum and overbought/oversold signals, and I have bullish divergence and am about to get a crossover on my stochastics.”

“We have just not had the follow through to the downside despite making new lows. It has not been the most robust sell off. The shorts have no conviction. There has been no follow through,”

June 14, 2017

“David Thompson from futures broker Powerhouse said the larger-than-expected gasoline build and the weak demand numbers are making RBOB the weakest performer post-data. The front-month contract likely will test the May 5 low, he said.”

March 29, 2017

David is quoted in Devika Krishna Kumar’s article “Oil rises 2 percent as supplies seen tightening”.  An article summarizing the latest EIA report on crude and products stocks and the market’s reaction.

March 23, 2017

David is quoted in David Gaffen’s article “U.S. crude stockpiles at record high as imports surge: EIA”.  An article summarizing the latest EIA report on crude and products stocks that have grown recently through increased imports and domestic production.

October 13, 2016

David is quoted in David Gaffen’s article “U.S. crude stocks rebound as refineries reduce output: EIA”.  An article about the price and market movements in reaction to latest EIA report on crude and products stocks.

September 29, 2016

Elaine is quoted in Ellen Chang’s article “Crude Oil Prices Rise With Rumors of OPEC Production Curtailment”.  An article about the price and market movements in reaction to recent OPEC announcement.

July 21, 2016

Elaine is quoted in Nicole Friedman and Akane Otani’s article “Why Oil Traders Are Writing Love Poems to Yahoo”.  An article about the demise of Yahoo instant messenger service as a viable platform or oil and gas trading.

April 7, 2016 Elaine is quoted in Ben Brockwell’s article “Are Airlines Back in the Fuel Hedging Game?”.

“PowerHouse, agrees that hedging activity from consumers is picking up along all parts of the pricing curve.

Her advice to clients for diesel and jet fuel is simple: These are the cheapest prices seen in a dozen years for these products. So if you want to maximize returns for your company and shareholders, you need a strategy to keep prices low as the market moves into a rebalancing period and higher prices.”