Remember oil?

There have been many activities missed by headlines writers over the last week due to the focus on the banking crisis. On any other week the rise in the price of oil would be top of the headlines says Betonmarkets.com's Michael Wright. Oil prices reached record highs for the seventh straight session last Wednesday after refineries in California and Texas said they had new outages and the government reported surprisingly large declines in oil inventories.Most of the traders have blamed the rise in price for oil on the fact that oil refineries have been shutting down some of their refining systems for maintenance while others have broken down. Even during the week of Hurricane Katrina oil prices stayed below the 77$ mark, a level that has been surpassed this week easily.Oil prices have a direct effect on consumer spending, with consumers flinching at price at the pump. Eventually oil companies and petrol stations pass on these price increases meaning it can have graduating effect on the nation's finances. As a result they go out less, and try to stretch their remaining money by spending less on frivolous items. The retail corporations on the other hand will feel the pinch twice as hard, as not only will their sales will be decreasing, their operating expenses will be increasing due to a higher heating bill.As for relief on the oil price, there doesn't seem to be any help in sight,while the hurricane season is ending the cold weather has increased the needfor heating oil which has caught many companies off-guard. Also not helpingthe matter is a new weather system in the Florida area which could turn intoa stronger tropical storm. While traders aren't worried about the situation,companies are taking precautions and are evacuating non essential personal.There are many ways a trader can profit from an increase in oil prices. Whenoil spikes up in price, stock indices tend to suffer. Other areas are thecurrency arena, where the USD/CAD pair is known as the commodities pair. Whenoil prices increase the pair tends to go lower. During last weeks slide thepair has lost almost 5 cents, which has almost brought the Canadian dollar topar with its American neighbor. With Oil not hinting at a reprieve andtension mounting in Iran, it could be some time before the USD/ CAD reversesits decline.With Betonmarkets.com a trader can profit from this possibility by buying a no touch trade, which compensates the trader for predicting the level which the pair won't touch. A no touch on the USD/CAD with a trigger above the daily high before the slide which is at 1.06 with a 25 day term to maturity can potentially yield 7% ROI. This means that if the US Dollar remains weak against the Canadian Dollar you could win.- THE END -Contact Details:editor@my.regentmarkets.comTel: 35 621316105Addresses:Regent Markets (IOM) Limited3rd Floor, 1-5 Church StreetDouglas, Isle of ManIM1 2AG