Koch has always been at the forefront of innovation in the oil business: in 1986 it entered into the world’s first oil-indexed price swaps, the first time instruments from the financial world had successfully been transferred to commodity markets. It was party to the first weather derivative contract seven years ago. And last year it launched the first ever volatility swap, a spread between the volatilities of crude oil and heating oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex).

The volatility