This article focuses on the impact of derivative markets on the American crude oil market. It first analyses the depth and liquidity of the market, and shows that there is a huge increase in activity from 1989 to 2003. Then the study focuses on prices volatility. The latter is separated into two...

In order to enhance the understanding of the term structure of commodity prices, this article examines the temporal integration of the American crude oil futures market. The study relies on a database including futures prices for very long maturities (as far as seven years) and compares their...

This article emphasises that the information provided by term structures of commodity prices has an influence on the real option value and on the investment decision. We exhibit first of all the analysis framework: the evaluation of an oil field. We suppose that a single source of uncertainty -...

This article focuses on the volatility of crude oil futures prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It aims at examining whether this market creates excess volatility, which would not be observed in the absence of such a market. In order to reach this objective, price fluctuations are...