Andrew Hall

Astenbeck Capital's Andrew Hall and Clive Capital's Chris Levett -- two of the biggest fund managers in oil -- are in for a second year of losses unless they can steer a turn around the next six weeks in a market bogged down by U.S. fiscal worries.Weighed down earlier in the year by Europe's debt crisis, oil now faces economic uncertainty from the so-called U.S. "fiscal cliff" -- a convergence of urgent tax and spending issues in 2013 that, if mishandled by opposing lawmakers in Congress, could plunge the economy into another recession.On the positive side, crude prices have been supported by Iran's controversial nuclear program and unyielding violence in Syria, which has started to affect some of its neighbors in the oil-producing Middle East.These have led to whipsaw volatility in London's Brent and U.S. crude futures, with fund managers often at a loss on whether to short the market on economic concerns or go long on worries about supply disruption.Brent, the more important benchmar...

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