Gas fund's positions raise concern that investors could push up prices

摘要

After two intense weeks of scrutiny by gas market participants, the $4-billion US Natural Gas Fund quietly trimmed its one-time 25% share of open interest in the prompt-month NYMEX contract to just below the NYMEX accountability level after the fund's rapid growth raised concerns that it could be inflating gas futures prices, a Switzerland-based analyst said. But Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob, who raised the alarm about the fund's percentage of the NYMEX prompt-month contract, said despite the fund's smaller position in the futures contract, the fund is still likely holding a "very significant" share of the open interest in the IntercontinentalExchange Henry Hub August swap contract since the majority of the contract's funds are now in swaps.