Oil futures drunk-trading incident

submited by

Style Pass

2023-01-23 21:30:02

The oil futures drunk-trading incident was an incident in which Steven Perkins,[1] an employee of London-based PVM Oil Futures, traded 7 million barrels (1.1 million cubic metres) of oil, worth approximately US$520 million (£340 million) in a two-and-half-hour period in the early morning of 30 June 2009 while drunk. These unauthorised trades caused the price of Brent Crude oil to rise by over $1.50 a barrel (equivalent to $1.89 in 2021) within a short period of time, a trend generally associated with major geopolitical events, before dropping rapidly. As a result of the trading, PVM Oil Futures suffered losses of almost $10 million and Perkins was dismissed, later being banned from trading by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Steven Perkins, an employee of PVM Oil Futures since 1998, was a Brent Crude broker in the London-based company's international commodities futures division.[1] As part of his duties, he traded in futures for clients; he was not allowed to trade using PVM's money.