https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg547ljepvzo
Traders bet hundreds of millions of dollars on oil contracts just minutes before US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the US would postpone strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure.
Market data reviewed by the BBC shows the volume of trade spiked around fifteen minutes before a social media post by the president announcing the move.
The price of oil fell sharply after the announcement, dropping 14% in a matter of minutes. Traders who bet on the unexpected move would have made money.
Some market analysts say the unusual activity opens up the possibility that the bets may have been placed with prior knowledge of the decision.
The BBC has contacted the White House for comment. A spokesman told the Financial Times that it did not "tolerate any administration official illegally profiteering off of insider knowledge".
[...]
At 06:49 ET, traders placed 734 bets on WTI crude oil contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).
One minute later, that number had jumped to 2,168. That's equivalent to about $170m.
The same pattern can be seen in traders buying contracts for Brent crude, the other major oil benchmark. Between 06:48 and 06:50 ET, the volume of trades rose from 20 to more than 1,650. That's about $150m in contracts.
Data for previous Mondays shows that far fewer trades are normally made at that time of day.
Similar trades also happened on Monday with futures contracts for the S&P 500, Euro Stoxx 50, and other markets.
This means traders placed bets on the value of the largest firms listed in the US and Europe rising minutes before Trump's announcement.
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