All Posts Tagged Crude Oil   

Crude oil off 67%

November 21st, 2008

The Jan ‘09 contract hit a high of $148.35 on July 11th. Just quoted at $48.60, it’s making new lows everyday.


Love thy Barchart

Over the summer the media was SCREAMING about high gas prices, and auto dealers were flooded with oversized trade-ins at rock bottom prices. Oil executives were marched into Congress at gunpoint to explain.

Call it an oil bubble, or the Yaris-Mini-Smart-Rio-Fit-Elantra-Aveo-Versa-SX4-Astra bubble. Either way, the media is now decidedly mum.

December Crude: Pretty Picture

October 15th, 2008

The one shining light in a bleak consumer world:

December Crude

At a 13-month low, I guess it’s only pretty if you’re NOT in the oil business. And combined with waning demand for plasma TVs, the US will probably be seeing a shrinking trade deficit too.

Testy Moments in Fly Fishing

June 22nd, 2008

Yes Drill Sergeant!

One Mercury RS2, color gray, size 20:
Mercury RS2
A paltry $1.50.

 

A half tank of gas for trip to favorite fishing spot (in the midst of the greatest crude oil bull run in history):
July crude is history
A modest $40.

 

The look on Australian expatriate and Microsoft DynamicsAX pre-sales wunderkind Craig Berg’s face after catching his first trout:
An Australian's First Trout
Priceless.

This guy bought fishing gear on a whim, and had used it precisely once. I decided Saturday would be a good day to really give him hell - he spent most of the day trying to drown out my incessant badgering. If he snagged his rig, I pounded him to walk upstream to save it. When he flopped a piss poor cast, I drilled on the importance of line speed and keeping an eye on the target instead of the line on it’s way back behind. And when he asked for help changing flies, I extorted compensation out of him in the form of case after case of light beer.

Near day’s end, he hadn’t yet put a fish in his net but assuredly was pretty fed up with my hollering. Nevertheless I persisted - on the walk back to the truck I decided to give him a lesson in “pocket picking.” We discussed identifying holding water, how to approach and cast into gin-clear shallows, and keeping an eye out for subtle twitches in the indicator.

Craig put it all together on his last attempt of the day - a perfect cast to the inside edge of some still water behind a two foot wide rock, taking up the slack as the indicator drifted nearer, and a stellar downstream hook set.

His wife exclaimed “awesome” when she saw the picture. I’ll just say “congratulations”… for graduating from trout fishing boot camp!