Crude oil rocketed higher today as WTI rallied just under 14% versus Friday’s close in what was the largest one-day gain since 2/19/09. There’s an old saying on Wall Street that big days happen in bear markets, and in the equity market that has tended to be the case as some of the largest percentage gains in stock market history were all during major bear markets. Looking at the largest one-day moves in crude oil shows a similar story as well.

The table below shows every one day gain of 10%+ in WTI going back to 1983, and for each day we have also shown how far crude oil was trading from its 52-week high after the one day gain of 10%+.In the case of today’s gain, WTI prices are still more than 18% below their 52-week high, and while that may sound like a lot, there have only been three other days of the 26 prior ones shown where crude oil rallied more than 10% and finished the day closer to a 52-week high than it did today (gray shaded dates).In fact, of all the days listed below, the average spread between WTI’s closing price on the day of the big gain and its 52-week high was over 46%! Talk about being in the hole! 

(Click on image to enlarge)