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THE man behind the record rise in oil prices to US$100 a barrel was a lone trader, seeking bragging rights and a minute of fame, market watchers say.
A single trader bid up the price by buying a modest lot and then sold it immediately at a loss, reported BBC World News.
The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) said that US crude oil futures traded just once in triple figures on Wednesday.
Oil prices rose slightly on Friday from the previous session's close after setting a record above US$100 a barrel overnight on a larger-than-expected drop in US crude stockpiles.
Prices have been volatile in recent days due to low holiday week trading volumes. That means some of the price moves, including Thursday's record, may be exaggerated.
Stephen Schork, a former floor trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the editor of an oil market newsletter, said one floor trader bought 1,000 barrels, the smallest amount permitted, on Wednesday and sold it immediately for US$99.40 at a US$600 loss.
'They absolutely overpaid,' he told Radio Four's Today Programme. 'He paid $600 for the right to tell his grandchildren that he was the first in the world to buy $100 oil.'
Most trading in energy futures has shifted away from the trading floor and takes place on electronic platforms, said BBC.
The NYMEX, along with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is one of the last bastions of 'open outcry', where traders use frantic hand signals to trade securities.
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