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An Affair To Remember

Business, China
By John Richardson on 01-Jun-2009
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Source:Amazon.com

I remain perplexed by the direction of chemicals, oil and commodity markets over the last few months – and now I understand the reason why.

It’s not about feedstock, it’s not about inventory levels or what end-use demand is really like, it’s all to do with affairs of the heart.

Thanks again to my fellow blogger Paul Hodge who writes:

The Illicit Encounters website has a major increase in traffic when either the market collapses, or has a sudden rise. Apparently, when markets are up, traders “think they can have an affair because they feel they can get away with anything. When the market hits the bottom, they are looking for a way to relieve the pressure.”

The site first came to the blog’s attention in December, when the Financial Times reported on its rather lucrative business model – a male membership fee of £119/month ($190). Now it appears to have forecasting potential too.

As with financial markets, surely with c hemicals pricing. All we need to do is to produce an index, on a confidential basis,of course, which tracks this particular form of intra-industry activity.