Negative oil price bubble is likely to burst in March - May 2016. A forecast on the basis of the law of log-periodical dynamics

Abstract

Data analysis with log-periodical parametrization of the Brent oil price dynamics has allowed to estimate (very approximately) the date when the dashing collapse of the Brent oil price will achieve the absolute minimum level (corresponding to the so-called singularity point), after which there will occur a rather rapid rebound, whereas the accelerating fall of the oil prices which started in mid-2014 will come to an end. This is likely to happen in the period between March, 24th and May, 15th, 2016. An analogous estimate (though a more exact one) was made for the date of the burst of the nearest negative "sub-bubble", which is likely to occur between 19.01 and 02.02.2016 (importantly, this estimate will allow to verify the robustness of the developed forecast in the very nearest days). However, this will not mean a start of a new uninterrupted global growth - the fall will soon continue, breaking new "anti-records". The fall will only finally stop after passing the abovementioned point of the main negative bubble singularity somewhere between March 24th and May 15th, 2016 (if, of course, the oil market remains at the disposal of speculators, and no massive interventions of macro actors are made). Importantly, our calculations have also shown that after mid-2014 we are dealing not with an antibubble (when price collapse goes on in a damped and almost unstoppable regime) in the world oil market, but with a negative bubble, when prices collapse in an accelerated mode, and there can be particularly powerful collapses with particularly strong destabilizing effect near the singularity point. On the other hand, negative bubbles can be better manipulated by the actions of the macro actors.