&gt; To protect against this risk, he bought &#x27;options&#x27; - the right, but not the obligation - to buy WTI and Fuel (amongst others) at some strike price.<p>That would be a &quot;call&quot; option.  He presumably bought &quot;put&quot; options, which carry the right to <i>sell</i> at a specified price.  Then when the market price fell, he could buy at the market price and sell at the strike price, pocketing the difference.<p>A call option is a bullish bet; a put option is a bearish one.<p>I don&#x27;t know how the restructuring worked.<p>&gt; Then, he &quot;accumulated a massive position in Maya&quot;, which &quot;strengthened significantly&quot; compared to his hedges. Does this mean that the price of Maya was recovering faster than the other oils that he had bet against, so he was able to sell his Maya at a profit?<p>That&#x27;s how I read it.