Day traders may have played a role in oil’s historic plunge into negative territory

Oil prices turned negative in April and day traders may be one reason why.  Bloomberg reported Monday that day traders at TDAmeritrade and ETrade suffered technical glitches meaning they couldn’t sell once they realized prices had turned negative. Traders on Interactive Brokers suffered a similar glitch. A number of other factors have been blamed for oil’s historic price crash, including lower demand during the pandemic and limited storage space in April.  Track the price of oil live on Markets Insider.  Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The crash in oil prices to below $0