Oil hasn’t yet climbed back to $100 per barrel, but options traders are increasingly setting their sights on another target—$200. The most actively traded
Brent crude
options contract on Thursday was an option to buy Brent at $200 in March 2023.
About half of the contracts to buy oil at that price appeared to be placed by one buyer who spent about $810,000 on the options, according to Robert Yawger, the director of energy futures at Mizuho Securities USA. But that buyer isn’t the only person making a bet that oil prices will hit $200, along with other bullish bets on where oil goes in 2023. “There have been people dipping their toes into those higher [options strike prices] over the last couple of days,” Yawger said.
