Financial Spread Betting - The Only Way is Up For BP?

However, a week prior to this release an explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig had started to send crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

BP's media response to the oil spill was as ineffective as were its initial attempts to stem the flow of oil. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months BP's share price became understandably volatile; dropping whenever an attempt to curb the flow of oil would fail and then rising again as any hint of good news reminded investors that the oil giant's shares were surely underpriced.

As the costs of the clean-up spiralled, there was talk of takeovers, mergers and investment partners. Most recently analysts and journalists have started to pick over the structure of BP suggesting that the oil giant might consider trimming its operations to focus on upstream activities as opposed to downstream (from the refinery and beyond) where competition tends to significantly reduce margins.

With the cost of the oil spill nearing $4 billion and BP's second quarter results due out on the 27 July, what does the future hold for BP?

Whether you've been following the price of oil or the fortunes of a company, one way of taking a position on them in the global markets is by financial spread betting. From the price of crude oil, to the share prices of the oil majors there are plenty of markets to choose from.

Make sure you find a spread betting provider that makes all kinds of resources available that will help you become a better, more knowledgeable trader. For the inexperienced look for a free educational course and for the more experienced, expert market updates and research papers.

With financial spread betting it's also possible to execute more sophisticated trading strategies like pairs trading. Pairs trading involves exploiting the difference in value between two historically related shares in the same sector. In this instance, one would look at BP and Shell's share prices as a prime example of an opportunity in pairs trading. That all depends on whether the recent rumours of a merger between these two old oil giants doesn't become a reality, of course.

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