Today we are going to talk about the negative oil prices in America, that we saw last week.
How can such an important resource have a negative price?
A negative price means you would pay someone to take it away, like garbage.
Garbage is what would call a negative value good.
How can oil be like garbage?
Well, oil producers sell oil several months in advance.
This is called a futures contract.
Futures contracts are collectively known as futures
Earlier in the month, Saudi Arabia and Russia were producing a lot of oil.
So, the oil was very cheap.
Many futures traders bought this oil thinking the price would go up when Russia and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement.
However, the demand for oil in the USA is as low as can be.
So, the futures traders had to pay someone to store the oil they bought.
After all, they could not store the oil in their Manhattan apartments...
★重点单词：Key words
Negative: 负值
Resource: 资源
Negative value good: 负值财货
Oil producers: 石油生产商
In advance: 提前
Futures contract: 期货合约
Collectively: 集体地
Saudi Arabia: 沙特阿拉伯
Russia: 俄罗斯
Futures traders: 期货交易员
Reached an agreement: 达成协议
Demand: 需求
Store: 储存
★小测试：Questions
Who is paying for people to store oil?
What is an example of a negative value good.
Why was the oil price so cheap this month?
★上期答案：Answers to "Secrets Exposed"
Strava is a ftiness app.
The 21 year old student posted that he knew where secret bases were on Twitter.
Strave made a map of where people were running. Some people were running in the desert.
Strava also showed the top 10 runners for each route. This could be dangerous for people in the military.