The shell game is one of the oldest cons on record. Greek historians tell of ancient Egyptian slicksters stripping rubes of spare coins in the shadow of the pyramids. We have concrete evidence dating back to 1670, wherein Richard Hull writes of rogues cheating farmers at “thimblerig” at ye old faire.

Luckily, I was bearish on oil until recently. I said to short oil when it was at $120 per barrel on 04/23/08. I was a little early to the party, but oil did drop below $33 a barrel in December of 2008. Oil plummeted $114 a barrel after reaching its record high last summer.

If you are waiting to pounce on oils rebound, Lou Baseness of Investment U recommends the best play in crude oil investing.

In the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald continues to uncover solid profit opportunities – including China, oil and other key commodities, and possibly even U.S. stocks.

Irwin Greenstein writing for Contrarian Profits  suggests that Repsol, an oil major from Spain, could prove to be the sleeper oil play of 2009. With significant new oil finds, Repsol could put investors in a position to pocket gains.

An article in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye, leading me to wonder if green investors may be crying the blues in 2009 and beyond.

Oil prices have fallen 70% since hitting a record $147.27 a barrel in July, which means in just five months, crude has given up all the price gains it made in the past four years.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Justice Litle thinks Dickens’ classic line  provides an apt description of today’s markets. Sure, this year has been hell. But it has also created some amazing opportunities for contrarian investors. Justice says this is most apparent in the oil and natural gas market, where irrational risk aversion has made most people forget the fundamentals.