a few weeks ago on your show you said that part of the reduction in gas prices could be because hedge funds were finally selling off their overpriced futures in that area (or something like that.) Is this your informed observation or are there data out there that would indicate it was the case? I mentioned this to a friend who works at a hedge fund and he seemed to get his feelings hurt that hedge funds get picked on so much. I wondered if I could point him to some evidence so he can start working through some of this.
More generally, how would (or could) someone prove the effect a single group of investors were having a certain effect on a market? Where would this show up? I'd also guess it would be hard to isolate those investors since their buying will influence others to buy, etc., but other than the prices at the end of the day, I don't know how you'd prove this. Is there anything more than an anecdotal (or an isolated, case by case--such as the accounting my wife gets for her pension fund) accounting of who is buying what at any one time. I'll preface that by saying that I'm sorry if that's a really stupid question. I try to follow the business press (which is where I imagine information like this could be) but rarely are there enough hours in the day.
thanks in advance, s