By Friday afternoons, the atmosphere on commodity trading desks undergoes a significant shift. For the first four days of the week, traders are focused on turning a profit from their bets. However, by Friday lunchtime, their attention turns to assessing the level of risk they can tolerate until markets reopen on Sunday evening.
The reason for this change in focus is that anything can happen while markets are closed, such as the outbreak of a new war, an election result, an unexpected OPEC announcement, or a market-moving presidential post. Forty-eight hours can be a long time for traders holding positions tied to actively traded markets, with no ability to adjust or rebalance their bets until trading resumes.