Went short at $79.80

Went short CL at $79.80. Position implemented by shorting middle of crude curve as timespreads are looking bullish so short exposure should be placed in the back/middle of the curve. My target on this short position is $75.00.

Crude approaching $80, time to go short again?

Crude approaching $80 on central bank liquidity injections. Considering going short again.

No fundamental reason for the current price rise (other than reasons for long term bullishness)

I don't believe that the issues in Europe are even close to resolved so I am considering going short again at currents. Will enter a limit order to sell at 79.80tomorrow.

There is a large head and shoulders formation forming in oil which would target an objective of $60 per barrel. I do not see fundamental reasons for oil to go so low unless there is a full blown soveign bond crisis in Europe so I will target $75 with my short position and then reevaluate once we get to that point.

Iran's big announcement - what will it be?

Well Iran's big announcement is tonight. The one that will "show the Western World". I don't know what it will be but most likely it will be much ado about nothing. Could be more about their enrichment program, some comment about new weapons or some bragging about their nuclear program.

Clearly the market thinks there is a chance that it is something as oil closed up .70while almost everything else closed down. Furthermore, the oil term structure indicated concern about a near term event with front month oil up $.70 while back months were only up $.15. This means today's move was not just a bounceback from Euro related fears (which have tended to impact oil prices equally all along the curve)

Israel also thinks the annoucement could be something as they went to the trouble to send a surface ship to the Red Sea (Persian Gulf?) a couple of days ago. If the Iranians are going to do something significant, it makes sense to send intelligence gathering assets to the area. Israel has very limited electronic surveilance capabilities so they probably need to send a ship to the area to augment their capabilities ahead of a potential event. The USA, Russia, UK etc. already have assets on station in case something goes down.

One possibility that is not being discounted by the market: If Iran does a nuclear test, expect all hell to break loose tomorrow. No one is discussing it, and it is possible. It would be very foolish on the Iranians part but it could happen. If it does, then oil is going higher. An Iranian nuke test will put a real geopolitical premium in oil prices as it will make war quite likely.

Market rolling over into the close

Oil still holding up but the S&P just rolled over and is at it's low for the day. Gold is acting in a very similiar fashion. The down is well below 10000 and looks headed lower.

This is very bearish action after the strange reversal on Friday which kept the DOW above 10000. The Euro has barely bounced and the dollar continues to rise.

Technically, all markets look bearish including oil and I would not be surprised to see more downside tomorrow.

CNBC with headline "Oil prices near collapse"

This is traditionally a bullish sign.

They also brought on Steven Shork to talk about how refineries are struggling and need oil prices to go down and/or gasoline prices to rise (i.e. higher gasoline cracks)

Just because they need it doesn't mean they'll get it. There is a lot of new gasoline capacity (especially ethanol) being added globally so gasoline cracks may remain anemic until more refineries are forced out of business.

There appears to be a wave of liquidity hitting financial markets today

All commodities up strongly today led by crude oil and gold. Stock indices up strongly as well. The cause is unclear but it there appears to be a wave of liquidity hitting financial markets.

Did someone do some more QE?