Saturday 14 May 2022 04:10 PM Essex Boys traders who made £570m betting on oil prices enjoy high life as ... trends now
A group of British traders known as the Essex Boys who made £570million in one day while betting on oil prices are facing scrutiny over how they pulled off their coup.
The group - many of whom are based in the upmarket Essex village of Theydon Bois - have gone on to live lives of luxury since their eye-watering payday on April 20, 2020.
Elliott Pickering is thought to be one of the group's biggest winnings, having reportedly netted $100million or £81.5million.
He has since set up his own racing company and spends his time driving £250,000 Ferraris competing at elite events on the racing circuit.
Meanwhile, Harry Lunn, 28, went in another sporting direction and founded a new international polo team which has since flown to Argentina to compete.
Aristos Demetriou, believed to be another big winner who entered the world of trading while working in a supermarket car park, now lives in a mansion near a golf course with cars worth £167,000 outside, according to the Times.
A group of British traders known as the Essex Boys who made £570million in one day while betting on oil prices are facing scrutiny over how they pulled off their coup. Pictured: Elliot Pickering who has now entered the racing world thanks to his £81.5million victory in 2020
Among the 'Essex Boys' was Elliot Pickering, pictured, who now owns a racing company
Paul Commins, 53, is the eldest of the traders and is thought to have brought the group together to operate independently at Vega Capital London, based in Essex.
He reportedly made about £24.5million and now lives in an eight-bed mansion. He set up a commercial art gallery company with Demetriou and fellow trader Chris Roase.
But while the Essex Boys are enjoying the fruits of their labour, which earned them acclaim both in the UK and across the pond, how they made their fortune is now being scrutinised by regulators.
On April 20, 2020, the trading group made an estimated £570million the day crude oil prices went negative for the first time in the market's history.
Vega is a small oil trading outfit in a small office next door to a couriers business, a car parts firm and a locksmiths. Mr Commins and his associates made lucrative trades on the assumption the price of oil would collapse to record lows.
Due to the pandemic, the group were marooned in their homes from the early hours of the morning.
Harry Lunn was among those who raked in millions and set up an international polo team
They were trading, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, the instrument most frequently used to buy and sell crude oil.
The price of crude is always settled in advance on, or about, the 20th of each month and holds good for the next four weeks.
And as it had been plummeting in tandem with the pandemic's devastation of the global economy, all the signs were that it would end the day at a record low.
As was their right, the Essex Boys were — like dealers around the world — intent on cashing in on this unprecedented freefall.
They had agreed to buy a certain amount of oil when the price 'settled', as it always does, at 2.30pm each day. But as well as buying contracts for oil, they were also selling the same amount of oil.
And because they had agreed to buy at whatever the closing price was, the more it dropped into the negative, the more they were effectively 'paid' for
