That Time I Tried to Buy an Actual Barrel of Crude Oil
Tracy Alloway strikes one of the more ridiculous trades in commodities history.
"Don't buy a barrel of oil," the broker said. "It'll kill you."
A fortuitous meeting between a gas trader and his broker at a bar in downtown New York was not going the way I had hoped. After revealing a long-held plan to try to buy a barrel of crude, I was now receiving a disappointingly stern lecture on the dangers of hydrogen sulfides. The wine tasted vaguely sulfuric, too.