Accounts managed by Optionsellers.com \u201chad to be liquidated as a result of these moves,\u201d said INTL FCStone, the company\u2019s futures broker. As its name made plain, Optionsellers.com specialised in selling options contracts to earn income for its investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tampa, Florida-based company, headed by James Cordier, has been registered as a commodity trading adviser since 2010, according to records at the National Futures Association, a regulatory body. NFA declined further comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, the Optionsellers.com website contained only its name and contact information. Calls to the company were not returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Options give holders the right to buy or sell financial products at an agreed price by a given date. Selling options can be a reliable source of revenue when markets do not fluctuate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it can also be an extremely risky strategy. If prices suddenly dive or jump \u2014 as they did in oil and gas \u2014 the seller can lose almost everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Natural gas was long one of the most volatile commodity markets, but surging production from shale formations reduced shortages and damped price moves. In August realised volatility in Nymex gas futures dropped to the lowest level since 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week\u2019s move \u201cwas out of the ordinary given we had such low volatility for the past four, five, six years. You get kind of lulled,\u201d said Joe Raia, managing director at RJ O\u2019Brien, a futures broker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An archived version of Optionsellers.com website said the company specialised in dealing options on commodities. \u201cThere is only a small segment of the investment community that knows how to deploy it in a portfolio. The tough part is finding somebody that knows how to do it \u2014 right,\u201d the website said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opening a \u201cstarter account\u201d required an initial investment of $500,000, with \u201cfounder\u2019s club\u201d and \u201cplatinum club\u201d tiers set at $1m and $10m, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOnce you\u2019re in, you\u2019re one of our family. One of us. One of the elite. You\u2019re an Option Seller,\u201d the website said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FCStone, a clearing firm at the futures exchange, is required to collect collateral from traders and post it at the exchange clearing house. An FCStone spokesman declined to comment on whether Optionsellers.com customers faced calls to repay any debit balances, but said their accounts were well collateralised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLiquidation of these accounts was in accordance with our customer agreements and our obligations under market regulation and standards,\u201d the New York-based broker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week\u2019s turmoil in energy markets began when crude oil futures dropped about 7 per cent on Tuesday. This was followed in natural gas by a rise of 18 per cent on Wednesday, then a 16.5 per cent fall on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The volatility continues: on Monday, Nymex December gas closed 10 per cent higher at $4.70 per million British thermal units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Accounts managed by Optionsellers.com \u201chad to be liquidated as a result of these moves,\u201d said INTL FCStone, the company\u2019s futures broker. As its name made plain, Optionsellers.com specialised in selling options contracts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46,57,90,96,107,137,139,160,174,184,201,202,209,232,233,244,246,249,256,267,277,279,288],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aramco","tag-baroudi","tag-democracy","tag-doha","tag-embargo","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-international-maritime-disputes","tag-lebanon","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-straddling-hydrocarbons-reserves","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}