There are more than 8,100 hedge funds globally managing over $1 trillion in assets today. speculative energy trading has a strong future, but it will not be the traditional utilities and energy merchants that will create and maturate that market.

The report concludes that energy trading will now be dominated by more sophisticated and well-capitalized financial players such as hedge funds and investment banks, as well as by multinational energy companies with a global footprint. Evidence of the fund's influence on oil markets has been the 55% growth in open interest on Nymex crude, heating oil, and gasoline contracts over last year and the more volatile intraday trading moving during recent months. These market drivers are bringing greater financialization and maturation to the energy complex.

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