Oil price pushed to record high over $100 by 'vanity trade'

A maverick oil trader in New York has aroused the ire of colleagues by enacting a "vanity trade" which first pushed the price of a barrel of crude over the crucial benchmark of $100.

Richie Arens, an independent trader who runs a brokerage called ABS, bought 1,000 barrels for $100 last Wednesday at a time when the prevailing price was $99.53. The price instantly settled back, although it jumped over the $100 again, hitting $100.05 during the following morning session.

The trade appears to have made an instant loss of at least $500 - but market watchers believe Arens was motivated simply by being the first person to buy at more than $100. His actions have attracted criticism from experts who say that it risked artificially triggering automatic "stop orders" placed by others in the event that the price hit $100.

Stephen Schork, editor of the Schork Report market intelligence service, said: "This could have triggered a massive artificial rally. It creates a doubt that these kind of shenanigans could be commonplace - you begin to question the validity of prices and to ask 'are these markets really working?'"

One floor trader, Ray Carbone of Paramount Options, said it was an "unfortunate way" for the price to hit $100: "It's a very sensitive subject here. There are mixed feelings about it, to put it in the nicest way I can."

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) refused to comment.

The incident is potentially embarrassing to Nymex, one of the few "open outcry" forums still operating, where traders use hand signals and scraps of paper to conduct deals. Schork said: "It sends a message Nymex doesn't want to offer. They've been telling the world that all the money coming to the market isn't causing undue speculation and that undue speculation isn't causing the price to rise."

Prices have been flirting with the $100 level for two months, pushed up by a tightening in supply by the Opec cartel and by political concerns in Iran and Pakistan.

The 33 cent spike to $100.05 was prompted by inventory figures from the US Energy Department which revealed that stockpiles fell by more than the expected 4m barrels last week.

Carbone said: "It's a very volatile session here. The inventories are adding some strength. The market's digesting geopolitical events."