A pair of researchers, one with the Institute of Management and Economics at Clausthal University of Technology, the other the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, has found evidence that suggests oil prices might now be based on futures contracts instead of day-to-day price fluctuations. In their paper published in the journal Nature Energy, Esmail Ansari and Robert Kaufmann describe their study of the oil price market and suggest an explanation for its recent odd behavior.