The date April 20, 2020 will forever be etched in oil trading history, for on that fateful Monday afternoon an expiring West Texas Intermediate contract for May initially slumped below $10, headed to zero, and at just past 2pm EDT in New York, fell 120.25% down to -$3.70 per barrel.
With the CME Group CME – holding company of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) where the futures contract trades – saying the historic first of negative prices would be honored in the age of the coronavirus or Covid19 pandemic that got the market here, much worse subsequently followed.
