Speculators Drive Oil Futures to Most Bearish Positioning Since 2009

Money managers have continued to sell off WTI crude futures contracts and are now the most bearish on the U.S. benchmark in 16 years, the latest positioning data from exchanges showed. At the end of the week to August 12, speculators held the first-ever combined net short across the two major WTI contracts (traded on CME and ICE), Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said on Monday in the weekly commentary on the commitment of traders (COT) reports. ICE-traded WTI—which is often used in Brent–WTI spread trades—sat…