What do you think gas prices for tomorrow will be? That can be like looking into a crystal ball or throwing numbers up in the air. Or you can find information on the Internet for just about every area of the world that have people who just look into prices for tomorrow as a full time job.

An area foreign to most of the general public is the NYMEX or the New York Mercantile Exchange. This organization deals in “futures”, or simply stated, an agreement to buy or sell an asset, (as in crude oil) at a specific price in the future. People who play in futures on the stock market buy options on these contracts and they can change at the term of the contract prior to delivery settling daily price changes.

Gas prices are a very fluid commodity. The gas price you see at our favorite gas station on the way to work can change by a few cents by the end of the day. Holiday travel adds a spike to gas prices tomorrow. The Gasoline or Diesel Fuel futures are published at 6:30 E.S.T. about sixty minutes after the Gulf Coast Energy Futures becomes published. It is amazing to think about the process that all of these data is accumulated from.

A simple Twitter that is re-tweeted can drive up the price or lower the price. The New York Stock Exchange activity for the day added to the NYMEX influences prices. Our neighbor and ally, Canada has seen many fluctuations as we do. Last month the lack of competition at the refinery level in Canada drove the gas prices up. The same rival plays here are also a factor in the United States.

With the use of push technology in place, you can often hear an announcement about what the gas price will be tomorrow on your cell phone. A sound bite may be heard and you have seen an exodus in your office that try and run out at lunch to save two cents on a gallon.

However, nothing plays more into what we pay at the pump like the futures market. There is a whole market share of the gross national product devoted to the price of gas. Trends, or the direction of whom the prices play out is not a complete science you can count on. The cost of crude, refining, transportation, marketing, taxes, and the cut at your favorite pump all play into what you fill up with tomorrow.