创业与商业bloomberg.com
我试着买一桶真正的原油
I Tried to Buy an Actual Barrel of Crude Oil
2015 — 2025，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
彭博社记者讲述自己尝试真正购买一桶实物原油的经历。文章解释了期货升水（contango）如何催生囤油套利生意，以及普通人想拿到实物原油会遇到的各种现实障碍——原油是危险品，运输和储存远比想象复杂。
为什么经久不衰：它把抽象的期货市场与笨重的实物世界连接起来，2020 年油价暴跌、负油价出现时被重新翻出，证明其对理解石油市场结构的解释力经久不衰。
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补充引用原文中的硫化氢窒息事故，说明原油相关作业的危险性
作者还引用了密歇根州安全机构文件中的另一个案例：一家化肥公司的两名员工进入 35 英尺深的旧蓄水池安装浮阀，第一人立即昏倒落水；两名下去救人的工人同样遇难；一位路人喊着“我会游泳”也跳了下去；最后消防队长摘下呼吸面罩喊话，也当场倒下——五人全部死于池中的硫化氢气体。
comex查看英文原文
Another notable excerpt from the linked state safety agency document (http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cis_wsh_cet5041_90142_7.doc): -- Two employees of a fertilizer company in Riga, Michigan, were assigned to install a new float valve in an old 35-foot deep cistern for a new 300-foot well. This cistern was covered with a concrete slab with entry through a covered manhole. The first worker entered the cistern and as he reached a plank platform six feet below the opening, he was instantly overcome and fell unconscious into the water below. The man on the surface immediately ran to the nearby plant for help. Several workmen responded and two of them entered the cistern to render aid. They met the fate of the first worker. A passerby who had been drawn to the scene by the crowd which had gathered was told by an excited bystander that several men in the cistern were drowning. Upon hearing this, he shouted, "I can swim, I can swim" and pulled away from a company employee who was trying to restrain him. Now there were four bodies in the well. Shortly afterward the fire department arrived at the scene with proper rescue equipment. The fire chief entered the cistern wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus. After reaching the plank platform, he removed his face mask to shout instructions to those on the surface and he, too, was instantly overcome. All five persons died in the cistern. Tests of the cistern atmosphere revealed that H2S in a concentration of about 1000 parts per million was present when the five deaths occurred. The water pumped up from the deep well contained dissolved hydrogen sulfide which was released in the unventilated cistern.
2020 年重读时发现文中描述的升水囤油行情正在重演
这篇文章现在读来更有味道了：文中描述的 2008 年金融危机后的“超级升水”催生了大规模囤油套利，而我们现在（2020 年）正处于同样的局面，只是价格更低、需求更弱。第一次读时没感觉，第二次读反而更精彩。
cbanek查看英文原文
Well, this aged well: "The story of how I came to own physical oil begins in late 2008, when fallout from the financial crisis spurred the crude market into severe contango—meaning the price of oil for future delivery was higher than the expected price of immediate “spot” delivery. While contango is the usual and persistent state of the oil futures curve, this particular "super" version helped create the perfect conditions for an almighty oil storage trade as the price of crude for future delivery vastly eclipsed the cost-of-carry and storage expenses of petroleum bought in the spot market." This is exactly where we are now, only the prices are much lower and the demand even weaker? I remember reading this the first time it came out. Only better the second time.
亲历者证实：机构也会意外差点被迫实物交割原油
我曾在一家小型量化基金工作，一次 bug 导致我们在大量近月 WTI 合约上的展期交易失败，到期时理论上必须接受实物交割，幸好券商帮我们解决了。
kyleblarson查看英文原文
I worked at a small quant fund and we once had a bug that caused our roll forward trade to fail on a rather large position of front month WTI contracts. We technically were going to have to take delivery since we were long the contracts at expiry, but our brokerage was nice enough to fix the situation for us.
推荐相关播客：洋葱期货被禁的历史
NPR 的 Planet Money 最近有一期播客《洋葱之王》，讲有人垄断洋葱期货实物，以及为什么洋葱是唯一被国会禁止期货交易的品种。
33W查看英文原文
Planet Money had a recent podcast titled "The Onion King", where someone took physical control of onion futures, and why that is the one type of future outlawed by congress. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episode-657-the-tale-of-the-onion-king
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