Oops:

The billionaire Texas financier T Boone Pickens is suffering a costly headache from the volatile price of oil which has caused the value of investments in his hedge fund, BP Capital, to plunge. BP Capital’s commodity fund dropped in value by 34% in July according to figures obtained by the New York Post, which reported that it is nursing a drop of 10% for the year to date. Although it did not confirm the figures, BP Capital issued a statement conceding that it was suffering. “We notified our commodity fund investors last week that the steep decline in natural gas and oil prices has had an adverse impact on our performance.” Since soaring through the three-figure mark and touching a high of $147 per barrel in mid-July, the price of crude oil on New York’s Nymex oil exchange has slipped back to around $114. Pickens’ fund appears to have mis-read the direction of prices. The spokesman said: “We continue to analyse the market and adjust accordingly.”