$100 Crude Trade a "High Ball"

 The much publicized $100 per barrel crude oil trade on the NYMEX yesterday was a classic "high ball". A high ball is a trade that makes a new high price and is done for the unspoken but express intent to find the world's reaction to that price level. I see nothing at all wrong with it, a market's job is to explore as many price levels as it can.

 This article implies that the trader who bought the single futures contract did it for vanity reasons. I say how about the guy who sold the 1000 barrel contract; it's one thing to have been the first person to buy oil for $100 a barrel, its a whole different thing to have been the first person to have ever sold a barrel of oil for $100. Both of those trading cards will be framed and put on office walls.