Can China’s Growing Geopolitical Power Influence Energy Traders?

WTI crude oil is trading at $80.415 per barrel, at the time of writing, while Brent cruse is trading at 84.66 per barrel. Trading, by definition, is a short-term endeavour. Although it may feel like a very long time when traders are watching and waiting for a move, positions are rarely held for longer than a few weeks, possibly a month or two, which, in the grand scheme of things, is only a blink of an eye.

This is true even if a trader is swing trading. Nonetheless, this does not imply that long-term aspects are not significant. In actuality, whether consciously or unconsciously, every trading choice a trader takes is influenced by a long-term perspective that unavoidably results from following market-relevant news and data.

Thus, from time to time, I pull back from the intraday and think about long-term influences and trends. I recently came to a startling, if not entirely original, conclusion as a result of doing that. China’s influence around the globe has been growing steadily for twenty years or so, but the rate of growth has really ratcheted up over the last five or six years and we are not far from where it is they, not the US, that is seen as the dominant global power. That is particularly noticeable when it comes to energy, where it could even be argued that the shift has already taken place.

China has seized the lead in the development of a number of alternative energy sources, most notably solar power, where they control over three-quarters of the global output and are by far the largest producer of photovoltaic cells. But, they also comprehend a point that some proponents of green energy in the…

Oil prices surged at the beginning of the week as OPEC+ stunned markets with an announcement of a production cut, but prices have since been restrained by mounting concerns that demand will be destroyed due to economic problems.