But while we may have been joking, for Andy Hall things were only all too real. So real, in fact, he just lost his job according to Bloomberg.

OIL TRADER ANDREW HALL SAID TO LEAVE PHIBRO BY YR-END: SOURCES

So is Hall's unwind the source of what some say is a relentless, rolling liquidation within the commodity space?

What is surprising, is that until September, Hall's Astenbeck wasn't doing too badly as the following letter shows:

What is perhaps more ironic, is that Hall actually thought shale would be a dud, and that we are beyond the peak-shale era, which would send crude prices higher. Well, he may have been correct about the fate of shale oil, but not how it would get there, considering he himself would be one of the casualties in the process.

More ironic, the following blurb from Bloomberg: "Andrew John Hall -- known as the God of Crude Oil Trading to some of his peers -- has built his success on a simple creed: Everyone who disagrees with him is wrong.