Dynamic analysis on the topological properties of the complex network of international oil prices

To analyze the dynamic of crude oil price data using homogenous partition of coarse graining process, OK WTI Spot Price FOB from January 1986 to November 2009 was transformed into symbolic sequences consisting of three characters (R, e, D). The vertices of the oil price fluctuation network were 5-symbol strings in the number of 102(i. e. 102 fluctuation patterns in durations of 5 days) linked in the network topology by time sequence. It contained integrated information about interconnections and interactions between fluctuation patterns of oil price in network topology. The dynamical statistics of the degree, degree distribution, clustering coefficient and the shortest path length were calculated. The results indicated that the degree of the oil price sequence fluctuation network and the accumulated degree distribution show a power-law distribution, so did the node degree and the rank. The degree of the former 32 nodes was larger, and most oil price fluctuation models had the character with the escalating trend. Some nodes of the oil price fluctuation network had stronger ability in between centrality, and 24.5 percent of the nodes took part in the 80.97 percent of Between Centrality function. The average path length was 2.285, and the paths with length 2-3 were 86.8 percent, which verified the complex characteristics of the oil price fluctuation in network topology. This paper had guiding significance in identifying the topological importance of the node model and understanding the inherent law and information of the oil price fluctuation.