speculator

Olivier de Schutter, UN rapporteur on the right to food, is in no doubt that speculators are behind the surging prices.

Nevertheless, the argument that the price rise is all down to speculators is far from proven.

As is often the case, some are blaming the participation of speculators for these moves higher.

It's just a PR phrase invented by the White House to stick single-family mortgage deadbeats into the HAMP and leave out the speculators.

Bafin, the German regulator, said on March 8 there was no evidence speculators using credit default swaps contributed to Greece's woes.

But that doesn't explain most of these moves. Instead, as with crude oil, this seems to be mainly about speculators jumping in.

Morgan Stanley borrowed more, as its chief, John Mack, was complaining that the bank was target of speculators betting it would fail.

The rally is best explained by the ease with which speculators and industrial buyers can find funds to bid up the clearing price.

That makes them reluctant to mail the keys to the bank and walk away if the market weakens, although a few speculators do so anyway.

But in the case of oil prices, it's hard to see that speculators are playing much of a role.

The obvious answer was that they were focusing on "investment grade" luxury housing targeted at speculators.

America's politicians are not the only ones to have fingered speculators for the feverish rise in the price of oil and other raw materials.

Brokerage offices that were almost empty a year ago are now packed with young and old would-be speculators.

' He also said there was no evidence that position changes by speculators 'precede price changes' for crude-oil-futures contracts.

In fact, the decline was triggered by demand for the dollar from speculators trying to cover large short positions in that currency.

"Speculators are still positioned for risk appetite, but the market is going the other way, " he said.

But Chalk believes that the restrictions on speculators introduced so far treat the symptoms, not the causes, of the malaise.

Most of it is MANIPULATION of the markets by speculators who were losing their shirts and are now (rightly) being kicked out of the markets.

Also, it is not simply a question of the Fed declining to bail out financial speculators who took on excessive risk.

'Concern and fear translate into greed, and speculators take [any news of refinery outages] and hype it into much higher prices, ' he said.

Ireland's so-called Celtic Tiger turned out to be a low-tax haven fueled by property speculators and selfish bankers.

This tax would be a body blow to the Wall Street speculators while leaving middle-class investors largely unaffected.

Their message was simple: the poor and the workers are being made to pay for the sins of the bankers and the speculators.

Masters adds that speculators used to make up about a third of the money in commodity markets.

Pondering these numbers, JGB speculators must have thought they had found a gold mine.

The speculators blamed by officials for precipitating the crisis may now be the only people willing to take a punt on Greece.

The existence of the euro means that there are no George Soros-type speculators able to organise runs on the lira, peseta or drachma.

Earlier, a member of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission rejected the idea that speculators are the main cause.

Recent data showed speculators continued to hold a net short position in the euro last week.

As a consequence, governments across Europe are adopting austerity measures to outflank the positions of these speculators.

The background was an equity bull market that had turned sour, leaving leveraged speculators with substantial book losses.

To work, the revaluation would need to be so big that speculators no longer expected a further rise.

Kindleberger's point was that speculators were not a single , homogeneous group : some won, some lost .

But signs of frothiness are also cropping up in odd places: garlic has become an unlikely target for Chinese speculators.

But they do price exporters out of foreign markets, and can be suddenly reversed if speculators pull out, disrupting trade patterns.

"The feed back circumstances is really good and nearly out of my expectations" , said Zhang Lei, a organizer of Wen Zhou house speculators.

Many speculators attempt to predict the market direction by using technical analysis-past stock price fluctuations-as a guide.

Even hardened speculators agree on this point .

Some speculators did not accept small losses pot nor holding the position of profit patience.

That amounts to an unwarranted stimulus to consumption and investment and a come-on to speculators, encouraging them to chase assets higher.

For politicians looking to claim victory against evil speculators, "underwhelming" is not going to be enough.

Current homeowners--not speculators who signed self-destructive mortgage agreements, but actual homeowners--would benefit as well.

But Mr Leuchtmann says the policy is a mistake, since it will encourage speculators to take on the Bank of Japan.

Speculators command authority from the money they put behind the views they express. Talk is cheap, but short-selling is not.

the various investors , hedgers , and speculators may be focused on any time period , from a few minutes to several years.

'If prices are skewed in a manner that is not fair by speculators, consumers can pay more than they should, ' he said.

Speculators have never been popular, and they have never been as unpopular as they are in the United States today.

But it attracts a flood of investment from speculators who borrow in the U. S. or Japan where money is cheap, and deposit it in Brazil.

Now two years of government controls on the sector have chased the speculators out and sales have dried up.

If there are no speculators, I would be willing to put my money into the stock market does not move for 15 years.

Most of the conclusions derived from analysis can be stated in impersonal terms, as applicable to investors or speculators as a class.

Speculators are increasingly betting that the eurozone crisis could escalate as short positions against the euro rose to a fresh record.

That scared away buyers, especially local and international speculators who have helped fan years of price increases.

Much of the land was grabbed by large agricultural speculators, often driving off families already farming there.

Nonetheless, without the participation of speculators, in particular institutional investors, price discovery will not be efficient.

Meanwhile, Cisa officials continue to maintain that spot markets are in the grip of speculators and thus do not reflect real demand.

This was no allusion to hated financial speculators.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When it comes to weakening the yen, currency speculators are the least of Japan's problems.

Some of my fellow leaders complain that it's all about markets and speculators, but none of us are proposing to change the market system.

Those short positions have been initiated by speculators who think the euro zone's debt worries are unlikely to go away in a hurry.

Farming concerns, not speculators, are buying most of the land put up for auction.

Speculators exist, and their behaviour is not always very nice.

Speculators purchase the crops at a low price and hoard them for several months, while middle dealers also help push up the price.

The artist was frustrated by the speculators who were buying from his galleries then quickly reselling his work at auction.

Back then speculators were lowering the debt costs of many European nations, which seemed happy enough to accept their money.

The stated purpose is to stop speculators from "threatening the stability of the entire financial system" .

"More importantly, if we announce a timetable, it could provide an opportunity for speculators, " he said.

In such cases speculators would be responding to hard-to-anticipate political changes, rather than steady economic developments.

As speculators suffer setbacks in one area, they quickly bail out of other, fundamentally unrelated areas to preserve their capital.

Speculators were allowed to buy shares on margin and could even borrow from the company to do so.

Even if this were purely a financial play on the part of the speculators, it would have major consequences in the material world.

He captures the fear, shame and hopelessness of small-time property speculators who got out of their depth and are now bust.

Speculators make money out of understanding and providing insurance against volatility.

And the phasing out of the property market speculators, is what can be expected.

A currency basket would mean that the yuan could fall as well as rise against the dollar, thus making life harder for speculators.

"When food supply is at risk, speculators are attracted, especially when trade barriers are put in place, " he warned.

But a large part of the buying, especially in the oil markets, was fed by speculators who believed demand would only soar.

This one set of numbers, in other words, does little to prove that speculators are overriding market fundamentals to influence prices.

That may be a common tactic of speculators, but it's rarely a good long-term investment strategy, the report said.

The suggestion that speculators deliberately manipulate markets to earn profits through bubbles and busts simply does not hold water.

But it does mean that speculators aren't at the heart of the story.

It said it would drum up supply and crack down on hoarders and speculators.

It has auctioned millions of tons in reserves of grain, cooking oil, sugar and cotton, and publicly threatened to punish 'speculators. '

Even if speculators do sometimes push prices out of kilter the fundamentals soon regain the upper hand.

This , Keynes and Hicks argued, was largely because hedges shifted their price risk onto speculators in return for a risk premium .

The fact that both were rising simultaneously in the copper market had many worried that speculators were buying and hoarding the metal.

"Our stance remains un-changed that we will take decisive steps against speculators who act like sneaky thieves at a scene of a fire. "

This has a real impact on the market--real users and real sellers, not the speculators. '

The slower appreciation against the dollar could be a signal to discourage speculators.

Others are confident that measures taken by the government have been enough to rein in speculators' excess.

It has survived the hand-over of sovereignty from Britain to China, the Asian financial crisis and repeated attacks from speculators.

Given those fundamentals, the case for arguing that commodity prices have been driven to excess by speculators looks rather stronger.

It is precisely because a professional class of speculators exists to take these risks that farmers and millers do not need to take them.

Speculators are usually portrayed as a class apart from the rest of humanity.

She probably thinks that "speculators" are manipulating the prices of these swaps.

Between the hedgers and the speculators, on a ground richly soaked with blood and money, are professional futures traders.

The other side of these contracts are held by speculators, who must therefore hold a net long position.

Insiders said, these measures tighten loopholes could be exploited by housing speculators and cities could detail the measures in future.

This was designed to stop speculators from driving the Taiwanese dollar higher.

It will turn into a hard landing for many sectors of China's economy, especially real estate speculators.

"Every weekend Greece . . . is subject to this organized attack by speculators in international markets, " he added.

Swap dealers also receive exemptions for speculative positions limits that apply to other speculators into the commodities markets .

Speculators in New York tried to capitalize on the inflated price of gold in relation to paper currency by corning the gold market.

The crux of our present problem is inadequate supply of land, causing prices to soar and creating opportunities for speculators.

They sell in part to speculators who hope to profit from any difference between the prices in futures markets and actual future prices.

His case was financed by speculators who hoped to profit from his victory.

Standard Chartered's Li Wei said buying by speculators was also a likely driver of the commodities imports growth.

Some blame the hedge fund speculators who have funneled large amounts of money into futures contracts in food markets.

That said, there appears to be much more demand for garlic from speculators than consumers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators are likely the first to be blamed in any discussion of today's soaring commodity prices.

We must write and enforce new rules of the road, to stop unscrupulous speculators from undermining our economy ever again.

This paper aims to price futures and to explain the participation degree of the speculators by the risk aversion of the hedges .

The old thinking was to sell tax-foreclosed property to whomever, even speculators.

But Americans imagined a condition in which speculators, self-makers, runners are always using the new opportunities given by our land.

Mindful that high oil prices could thwart an economic recovery, politicians are again blaming speculators for this unruly behaviour.

Lord Liverpool threatened to resign as chancellor of the exchequer in 1825 if the speculators were bailed out - but eventually they were.

The intend to prevent people-- speculators, property developers, city slickers--from borrowing large sums of money.

The fashionable answers come in sweeping indictments of speculators, greedy Wall Street executives and free-market ideologues.

There is not enough of a spread between the dollar, euro and yen to reward speculators.

Tall tales about panicked speculators leaping to their deaths have become part of the popular lore about the Great Crash.

In the early stages of the market boom, gung-ho Chinese speculators were considered a mild curiosity.

The futures market does sometimes signal that prices are likely to rise, which might prompt speculators to hoard oil in anticipation.

Speculators would be prevented from triggering a fast default and the government could go on increasing public debts.

In the last couple of years, the speculators made the call, and every year there were dramatic changes in price.

In the recent financial crisis, speculators and their financial instruments have been under attack again.

Speculators, traders and sentiments contribute significantly to the volatility of the FX markets.

If speculators are not to blame, does it follow that there is no bubble in the oil market?

Markets other than oil provide telling evidence against the theory of powerful speculators.

As copper began to decline, hedge funds and other speculators bailed out.

Rather than being a place where institutional investors hedge stock portfolios, the market is a playground for wealthy speculators.

El-Badri has blamed a weak dollar and speculators for soaring oil prices, which are taking a heavy toll on economies worldwide.

"They were profiteers and speculators, " said one local businessman. "Congo got nothing from them. "

Speculators are simply driving up the price of oil to hedge their bets on the falling dollar.

Japanese businessmen generally regard outside investors as greedy speculators rather than partners.

If we are not prepared to take decisive action against raw materials speculators . . .

Many speculators, betting on ever-rising land prices, have parked their money in newly built offices or apartments that are largely vacant.

The crux of the housing problem is inadequate supply, causing prices to soar and creating opportunities for speculators.

Profitable speculators, in contrast, are veritable philanthropists.

IMF researchers now concede that poor countries may be helped, not hindered, by turning away foreign speculators.

Workers flooded in, and speculators and builders alike could buy Hummers on credit.

Betting on container rates, which are a proxy for economic activity, may also appeal to speculators.

Mainland Chinese buyers are slowly emerging, though insiders say most are speculators attracted to the giddy returns of recent years.

Speculators provide liquidity and disseminate information rapidly.

In India, the regulator recently suspended trade in futures markets for several commodities, blaming speculators for price rises.

Financial speculators earn billions of dollars, not over a lifetime but in a single year.

This year alone, speculators have driven up the price of garlic, ginger and mung beans, popular for their medicinal value.

But the negotiations faced stiff opposition -- for the simple reason that many are not convinced that speculators are to blame.

That, in turn, would erode profits on the oil-carry trade, leading speculators to liquidate inventories, likely hammering prices.

The beneficiaries are more than mere land speculators; they are also enthusiastic supporters of efforts to rig the market.

Similarly, the same speculators whom European politicians are now excoriating are the ones who played the "convergence trade" in the 1990s.

The government also has policy options: Borrowing restrictions for developers can be loosened and speculators allowed back into the market.

He called for pooled democratic sovereignty rather than "handing over real sovereignty to markets and speculators" .

Apple's shares have hit historic highs lately, and the drop may be due to speculators selling to lock in profits.

The rest was seized by the Crown and sold to nobles, courtiers , merchants and groups of speculators.

This has spurred industrial consumers to scramble to secure supplies while speculators pour fresh money into the metal.

True, European politicians have excoriated "speculators" that destabilise the market in sovereign debt.

This week, Mr Sarkozy once again declared: "We want a capitalism of entrepreneurs, not a capitalism of speculators. "

The trade worked. Speculators made money, governments benefited from lower borrowing costs and nobody complained.

Stand firm, and the speculators will fold, was the wisdom of the day.

As the world economy continues its recovery from the crisis, commodity prices will continue to rise again, with or without speculators.

Securities regulators have introduced stringent requirements to keep speculators away.

When speculators foresee a shortage and bid up the price, they are also helping to conserve the present supply.

Investors and speculators are still betting on an upward trend in property prices.

Traditionally, denunciations of speculators come from the left of the political spectrum.

Alas for the oil bulls, the oil bears (downside speculators? ) have plenty of ammunition of their own.

Speculators therefore are individuals and firms who seek to profit from anticipated increases or decreases in futures prices.

Nicolas Sarkozy makes a distinction between business people (who create things) and financial speculators (who wreak havoc).

If the speculators are not to blame, what about the oil companies, which have failed to increase output in spite of record profits?

Banks (or speculators, depending on your bias) have tied up about 80 per cent of the LME-warehoused aluminium.

Speculators drove home prices beyond any historical connection to incomes. Gravity did the rest.

Goldman's comments followed separate meetings this week by US and UK regulators to discuss the influence of speculators in energy markets.

The notion that the yen is unnaturally high, or that speculators are in part to blame for that, is debatable. But one thing is sure.

Investment can flood into the oil market without driving up prices because speculators are not buying any actual crude.

Francois Leveque from the association says the explosion in prices is due to speculators and Chinese buyers.

An unexpected surge in investor demand is sending silver prices soaring -- and speculators and mining companies are digging in.

The respective proportions of these speculators are then endogenous and have an impact on the volatility of prices.

Is the latest run the action of speculators, as Silvio Berlusconi mused in his farewell statement?

The stock markets are crashing with global food and oil prices rocketing as unchecked speculators turn to commodities instead.

That makes the economy less vulnerable to the whims of market speculators who have triggered serious financial crises elsewhere.

The more the BoJ generates this kind of profit for those who bet against it, the more attractive this strategy becomes for all speculators.

"That would be bad news for copper speculators, " he added.

When the last gold bull market peaked in 1980 speculators took part by buying jewellery or coins, complete with retailers' markups.

As the world economy continues to recover, commodity prices will continue to rise again, with or without speculators.

Speculators, betting that the yuan will appreciate, are buying it with weakening greenbacks.

As is the case with liquid markets subject to swift price changes, the oil market attracted speculators from the start.

The aim was to bludgeon speculators and impress creditors.

Revolutionary measures taken by the new regime prevented the speculators from cleaning up.

However, strength in the Japanese currency may subside as speculators have cut bets that it will appreciate.

And speculators can't affect the price of oil in the long term.

Regardless of what investors or speculators say to justify their punting, the real driving force is the return of animal spirit.

Now, speculators do sometimes push commodity prices far above the level justified by fundamentals.

More striking, speculators have been betting that natural gas prices will slump.

Talk in continental Europe of an "Anglo-Saxon" conspiracy of greedy speculators is also dishonest.

China's leaders promise to hunt down and punish hoarders and speculators.

Treasuries are now in the hands of speculators looking to sell, not investors looking to hold.

Speculators make money through traditional market behavior, the arbitrage of buying low and selling high.

We think the tax would apply to future Swiss purchases and would only be applied to speculators.

Amid a witch hunt for commodity speculators, monetary policy and emerging markets are working some black magic of their own.

The speculators would immediately have turned their attention to the banks in the next weakest link (probably Spain).

Bennett once declared that "speculators should not have the advantage of earlier news than the public at large. "

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and others say it is not clear that speculators are to blame for high oil prices.

That leaves aside speculators, who have borrowed unknowable amounts of yen to invest abroad, often on highly leveraged terms.

But, technically, they too are part of the massive growth in the ranks of the new oil speculators.

But to attribute the woes of euro-zone government-bond markets solely to evil speculators is dangerously misguided.

Speculators also provide futures, or hedging, markets for producers of commodities and assets.

Whether such speculators were behind the spike in oil prices is a matter of fierce debate.

Speculators often lose huge sums on commodity bets, rather denting their reputation for moving markets.

First, we are told, speculators have driven up the price of oil, condemning us to expensive heating and motoring.

Some famous investors have even supported governments' attacks on speculators.

We were doing our best to convince international investors that Brazil was committed to reform and had the cash to fight off speculators.

Since April the pace of appreciation has been much reduced, in a vain effort to discourage speculators.

The physical market lacked activity, but some speculators could be tempted to cash in on gold's gains.

Hot money flooded in from speculators who made their fortune from properties in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province.

He blames speculators, high fuel taxes and increased oil consumption in developing economies.

Those speculators who bought Nakheel's debt at half its face value have been vindicated.

With food prices on the table again, we're going to have another debate about the role of speculators.

However, the sharp interest rate hike quickly stemmed capital outflow and fended off speculators.

Now critics are stewing over speculators again, thanks to rising prices in everything from oil to metals and grains.

CDS speculators do not have the power to push countries towards default.

A bubble in garlic is small, financed by private speculators, and relatively harmless when it bursts.

When the market along with their background or their own ideas of the scheduled time, the speculators allow emotions to overcome reason.

But much of the leap in commodity prices was due to investors and other speculators.

Speculators have ramped up their bets against the euro in recent weeks to fresh record levels.

But if there are too many speculators, the price will be decided by speculators rather than by the normal consumption and production.

They have also become a lightening rod for criticism from skeptics who say speculators use them to force targets into default.

As to the re-merge of Wen Zhou house speculators, personnel in or out the field have different views on it universally.

Their optimism is continually buffeted by scares and speculators who test whether a rising market is robust.

Second, currency speculators might be attracted to buy the currency for short-term gains.

The only bet speculators are making on the renminbi these days is that it will appreciate in value.

In fact, Abdullah al-Badri, OPEC's secretary-general, said that the recent spike has "largely been driven by market speculators. "

Chenggong may still be largely empty but it is already attracting the attention of property speculators.

Now, faced with financial crisis in Dubai, bargain-hunting, to foreign real estate speculators.

Everything from Oil to Silver: Are Speculators Causing Too Much Volatility?

It's even reported that speculators are hoarding a large number of properties to fuel price rises.

The hearings come amid increased scrutiny of the impact of speculators on oil prices.

It's because currency market data show the speculators are already heavily net short of both the euro and the pound.

This, they argue, would deter speculators from hoarding empty property and help bring prices down.

There are legitimate fears that too much currency freedom will serve mainly to give speculators a licence to destabilise.

Congress banned onion futures in the 1950s on the ground that speculators were driving the price of the vegetable.

Bearish speculators will make a lot of money, and safety-minded investors will see their purchasing power rise.

"Strike hard" to the unscrupulous speculators in the market poured cold water on the pot.

or speculators and traders may use them for a directional bet.

In this respect, The Intelligent Investor is a book for true investors, not speculators or day traders.

It's a difficult balance between teaching speculators a lesson and averting systemic failure.

The economies targeted by speculators are now those that are strong, not ones that are weak.

So here are two questions: Are speculators mainly, or even largely, responsible for high oil prices?

Goldman rocked markets in April by calling a nearly $20 fall in Brent, saying speculators had pushed prices ahead of fundamentals.

If the intellectual case against speculators is weak, one can always fall back on the emotional one.

Risks are transferred to those willing to bear them, as hedges reduce their risk by paying a premium to speculators.

They were riotous speculators; they gambledin land, in furs, in lumber and canals and settlements.