At first, the CAO primarily used derivatives as a hedging instrument to hedge its risk inherent in its
primary business of physical oil procurement and trading. However, as stated in the PwC report, at
the end of March 2003, CAO entered into speculative option trades where it sought to profit from
favourable market movements. Strategically, CAO took the view that the market price for oil would
continue its trend upwards. For its trades in options, it purchased calls and sold puts, thereby
effectively creating a geared long position. As oil prices increased, the calls that were purchased
were exercised and profits were made. The puts that were sold were not exercised and the company
profited from the premiums that had been collected when these options were sold. This strategy
was extremely successful until Q3 2003.
In Q4 2003, CAO adopted a bearish view of the trend in oil prices and as a result changed its trading
strategy, according to the PwC report. Chen Juilin signed contracts with multiple banks and made a
speculative bid on oil for $38 per barrel with the assumption that the oil price would not rise above
that price. It now sold calls and bought puts with the result that it was in a short position at the end
of 2003.
However, the company’s strategy started to unravel when oil prices did not decrease from the end
of 2003. In October 2004, the situation came to a head when international oil prices grossly
surpassed the $38 price, leaving CAO facing significant margin calls on its open (short) derivative
positions.
According to a CAO press release dated the 30 November 2004, “it was unable to meet some of the
margin calls arising from its speculative derivative trades, resulting in the company’s being forced to
close the positions with some of its counter parties”. In the same press release, CAO announced that
the accumulated losses from these closed positions amounted to approximately US$390 million. In
addition, the company had unrealized losses of about US$160 million, bringing the total derivative
losses to $550 million. However Chen Juilin and other senior executives manipulated the company’s
financial statements to conceal the losses.