 Journalist Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones called it "a development that many say is artificially raising the price of crude".However, another source stated that, "Just before crude oil hit its record high in mid-2008, 15 of the world's largest banks were betting that prices would fall, according to private trading data..."

In April 2011, a couple of observers - Brad Johnson of the blog Climate Progress, founded by Joseph J. Romm, and Alain Sherter of CBS MoneyWatch - noted that Goldman Sachs was warning investors of a dangerous spike in the price of oil.Climate Progress quoted Goldman as warning "that the price of oil has grown out of control due to excessive speculation" in petroleum futures, and that "net speculative positions are four times as high as in June 2008", when the price of oil peaked.