Negative Price of Petroleum???

    History was witnessed again today as international oil prices set a new record and US light crude futures WTI for May hit a record low, falling into negative territory for the first time in history. U.S. light crude for May delivery plunged about 300% to settle at -$37.63 a barrel. It was the first time oil futures traded in negative territory since they began trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983.

    What does a negative Oil price for the May contract mean?
    In fact, does not represent everyone later refueling free money. That is because it is the soon-to-expire Light crude contract for May, not the spot oil price, that has fallen into negative territory. Indeed, the June futures contract is still trading above $20. The contract collapse in May means that the cost of transporting oil to refineries or storage has exceeded the value of the oil itself, leaving some small and medium-sized oil companies at risk of bankruptcy.
    Reasons for negative oil prices:
    One theory is that the U.S. strategic and commercial petroleum reserves are all in and out, unable to store any new incremental crude. It is said that 160 million barrels of cruise ships are heading for the United States. The day before the delivery day, if the long position is not open, then the delivery of physical oil, these crude oil storage costs can be quite staggering. Another is that as of last week, there was 20% capacity at Cushing, the WTI delivery point, so it's not really that there's nowhere to store it. This is the strangulation of many. There is also a rumor in the market, from public information and from brokers. The main force behind the killing was ALGO, or program trades, which targeted 109,000 speculative long WTI futures open in May and used the rule that expiring long positions must be liquidated, rolled over or settled to keep prices down, eventually leading to a collapse.