Expert analysis of rising oil prices and the out-of-control oil markets that jeopardize both national security and the economy

The price of oil is negatively impacting both companies and consumers. In Oil's Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Energy to Secure Our Economy, energy analyst Dan Dicker recalls his experiences as an oil trader and reveals the changes that have taken place in the oil markets during the past twenty years, and particularly the last five, as investment banks, energy hedge funds, and managed futures funds have come to dominate energy trading and wreak havoc on prices.

• Reveals why oil prices cannot stabilize without dramatic action on the part of both government and business
• Details how the novel, but wrong, idea of oil as an asset class took a sleepy, club-like market into the national spotlight
• Describes how the United States is unnecessarily handing its wealth over to foreign oil producers during a time when the potential supply of oil is greater than ever

Written by an industry insider, Oil's Endless Bid analyzes the biggest financial story of the last ten years?how we lost control of our oil markets.

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Praise for OIL'S ENDLESS BID

"Eye-opening for anyone who drives a car or uses a lightbulb. Dan Dicker draws on his years of experience at the heart of energy markets and uncovers why Americans are paying the price for huge funds to gamble in futures. By the end, he makes his case for some real-world solutions to a problem that is bound to spiral out of control once again. As compelling as it is entertaining."—Melissa Francis, Host of CNBC's The Call

"Armed with the perspective of a market professional, Dan Dicker dives into the slick, murky world of oil trading and emerges with an illuminating cautionary tale." —Daniel Gross, columnist for Yahoo! Finance and Newsweek

An industry insider tells the biggest financial story of the new millennium—how we lost control of our oil markets

Leading energy industry analyst Dan Dicker recalls his twenty years as an oil trader and describes the huge changes that have taken place in the market over the past decade. He details the impact of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act on the oil market and how the financialization of oil transformed a sleepy niche market into a global Ponzi scheme. He explains how investment banks, energy hedge funds, managed future funds, and ETFs came to dominate energy trading and wreak havoc on the oil market and the world economy. And he exhorts government and corporate leaders to act to stabilize oil prices before it's too late.

Introduction: The Oil Market Is Broken. A Brief Look Back at the Good Old Days of Oil Trading. Part I: Oil's Endless Bid: What Caused It? The Assetization of Oil, Part 1: Commodities Aren't Stocks. The Assetization of Oil, Part 2: The Problem with Commodity Indexes and ETFs The Rise of the Investment Banks and Their Financial Finagling. Increased Access to Trading Oil: The Trading Floor Goes Online. Part II: The Destruction of Reliable Fundamental Pricing of Oil. Why Oil Traders Don't Care about the Price of Oil or the Value of the Dollar. Oil Traders Couldn't Care Less about Peak Oil. Alternative Sources of Oil and Why Investors Should Care. Proof of Oil's Endless Bid: Crack Spreads. The Fuel that the Endless Bid Forgot: Natural Gas. Part III: Where Are We Headed? What Needs to Be Done. Epilogue: Oil's Endless Bid Appears in the Gulf of Mexico. Appendices. Appendix A: A Brief Review of the History of Futures. Appendix B: An Extreme Example of Intervention in the Futures Market: How 3 Dallas Oil Tycoons Tried to Corner the Silver Market.