If your going to trade, just remember, that HFT (High frquency trading) is basically running at certain random times and you can loose your shirt if you over leverage. The last thing i will be doing is investing in any financial shares..... especially now that the true extent of corruption in the fiscal sector is plain to those with a heart beat and 60IQ.
Speaking of leverage..... people here stating that Rothchilds etc putting in $130 bets on are forgetting the fact that this is leveraged money.... that $130m can possibly be leveraged up to 400 times..... so, chump change my arse when the price moves...... this is more likely a hedge bet, but still says that the threat is very, very real.....
If the euro breaks up, gold will shoot up...... but the down side is that Paper gold, may do well briefly but if any fiscal collapse happens with a "too big to fail" then you could see a big sell off of assets (gold being one of them) to raise capital...... also, leveraged paper gold very well could declin while physical goes up due to the fact that margin calls remove speculators out of the market allowing only the real players with physical to back up the bets in.....
Just my 2 cents on the oil thing....... read in a middle eastern paper here about LNG investment of 20bn dollars that shell have been making and, funnily enough it stated in the artical, much to my surprise that Shell only required a costing of $6 per barrel for extraction and the current price is 70 USD p/b!!!! they must think were f*cking stupid to not see that one out....... I just laughed and though if people in western countries read this and thought about the fuel price they may be less inclined to be apathetic!!!
In saying this, there are many little articals here that report about Saudi commencing drilling operations in deeper water and to other areas in the north of the country....... WHY would they do this..... for one they admitted they overstated there oil reserves by 40% in 2010/11 and nobody blinked an eye! secondly you would have to think that if the low hanging fruit has been picked or found then "Reserves" not viable at a low price all of a sudden become viable to add to the books, still equates to a loss of net energy once it is refinned etc..... so you get higher prices because traders know this kind of thing......... we will still have oil for at leats another 20 - 30 years although price spikes due suply/high demand issues will be the new norm.........
maybe the people relying on the "scientists" to figure it all out better put there "tin foil hats" of ignorance on. Try making a rubber tyre out of nuclear energy!