Bloomberg.com: Energy

This is the 10th straight week that analysts have forecast a decline in prices. They were correct in two of the eight weeks through March 7. The oil survey has correctly predicted the direction of prices 51 percent of the time since its introduction in April 2004.

In what way do you think crude prices would have been different in 1980, had there been a futures market?

My hunch is that with the much faster market response to news, there would have been panic peaks followed by declines, while on the spot market back then, 'panic peaks' were conserved for weeks to months, and thus just added up. In other words, maybe prices wouldn't even have climed as high as they did on the spot market back then.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}