Some of the biggest trading houses and hedge funds have emerged as winners in this week's chaotic oil market.

The losers? Often retail investors believing crude could be a one-way bet.

‘Muppets v Sharks’ as retail feels pain of negative oil

https://www.ft.com/content/910dbf8f-b880-4056-81bd-76262d294663 #OOTT

We've identified 4 hedge funds that did well in oil:

* Doug King at the Merchant Commodity Fund
* Pierre Andurand at Andurand Capital Management
* Vincent Elbhar at Swiss-based GZC who had been betting on negative prices
*Marwan Younes at Massar Capital Management in NYC #OOTT

Trading houses with access to storage at Cushing, such as Mercuria and Trafigura also trading successfully through the chaos.

But professionals getting increasingly concerned about influx of retail traders who risk getting badly burnt or even distorting markets. #OOTT

ETFs and other structured products are in the firing line.

* Bank of China has had to halt its oil 'treasure' products.
* US Oil Fund's issues have been well-documented
* Interactive Brokers Group taking an $88m hit for customers without enough funds to cover their account #OOTT

Barclays and Credit Suisse have also had to suspend oil-linked products.

It adds up to retail investors coming up against the most volatile markets in history - and the most experienced traders - and sometimes getting more than they bargained for.

Oil trading is... hard. #OOTT

And it's not like trading equities. There are real physical barrels underpinning the derivatives people are trying to trade.

Your long-term oil view might be right, but it counts for zip when WTI is expiring on Tuesday and you've got to take delivery with no storage. #OOTT

If you want to play in these markets... think hard, think twice. And maybe get a bigger boat. #OOTT