Video | Suspicious Selling Wave in the Oil Market Sparks Insider Trading Allegations

According to a report by AFP on March 27, just minutes before U.S. President Trump posted on social media about dialogues between the U.S. and Iran on March 23, there was a wave of selling in the oil market, which remarkably avoided a large drop in oil prices, raising speculation about “insider trading.”

The report stated that between 6:49 and 6:50 AM New York time on March 23, thousands of financial products linked to oil prices changed hands in just two minutes, an unusually large trading volume, as typically only a few hundred are traded during that time. At the same time, the same traders were also making large bets on a rise in the New York stock market.

Less than 15 minutes later, President Trump posted on the platform that there had been “productive” dialogues with Iran. The AFP report noted that this marked a sudden change in tone for the U.S. president, triggering significant volatility in global markets, with oil prices plummeting and Wall Street surging.

Analysts stated that the large-scale trading prior to the announcement was highly unusual.

The report mentioned that these “timely” trades have a theoretical value of up to hundreds of millions of dollars. According to a market participant’s estimate, these operations could have generated tens of millions of dollars in profits. The report cited comments from Michael Lynch, an oil analyst at the Energy Economic Strategy Research Consultancy, who said that seeing such large-scale trading before the announcement is indeed somewhat suspicious and quite unusual. Trades of this magnitude are not common in the oil market.

However, the report also indicated that there is currently no evidence suggesting that Trump was involved in any way with these market operations.

The UK’s Financial Times believes that these trades are reminiscent of situations that occurred prior to U.S. attacks on Iran and Venezuela. Several hedge funds stated that this is one of many cases of large pre-announcement trades before significant news from the U.S. government in recent months. A trader from a large hedge fund noted that energy consulting firms have recently observed multiple unusually timed large trades. Another investment manager indicated that a series of precisely timed large trades has caused “strong discontent” among investors.