When Oil Went Negative: How One Day Broke Futures Markets

On April 20, 2020, WTI crude fell to minus $37.63 a barrel—traders paid to offload contracts expiring that day. CME Group rewrote its rulebook to permit negative prices. Clearing systems and options models that assumed prices couldn't go below zero needed urgent fixes. The crash revealed a hard truth: under extreme stress, participants couldn't always exit positions, and price signals broke down.