Daily Market Commentary October 25, 2001

TRADERS SKEWER ENRON . . .

 Natural gas futures retreated in busy trading Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Much of the volatility was the result of trade and commercial accounts seeking to profit from a perception of market weakness by a prominent trade and commercial account. Other trade and commercial players bid the cash market higher with the intent of forcing liquidation of underwater short positions. Today's activity is not seen as significant in the determination of longer term price trends, and short term traders see the market working higher. . .

 At the end of the day, the November futures fell $.043 to $2.938 per MMBtu. The December contract eased $.068 to $3.103 per MMBtu. . .

 "This was called the 'get Enron day'. Many customers said that Enron was short the market and at first traders ran the cash market higher. For a while the cash market was ahead of the futures by as much as 10 cents, and as soon as the gap was (partially) filled on the December charts at $3.25 to $3.30 (August 24), the bottom dropped out and when prices fell below unchanged, it got ugly," said a New York floor trader. . .

 "Basically Enron was taken to the cleaners. Traders knew that Enron had to get out of positions. There was talk of funds needed to pay an SEC fine, and
traders took advantage of that." . .

 "There was no sympathy for Enron anywhere. Traders knew they had them on the run." . .

 "I believe if prices can hold the $2.80 to $2.82 in the November, the best
plan is to come back and buy again," he said. . .

 "The activity today was just a 'get Enron' tactic. Other traders were hearing the same thing from their customers."









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