Lates News

According to Reuters, about 20 minutes before the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was announced by the Iranian Foreign Minister on Friday local time, investors placed bets of approximately $760 million on shorting oil prices. This is another significant bet on the most actively traded commodities globally before the release of major news during the Middle East conflict. According to LSEG data, investors collectively sold 7,990 lots of Brent crude oil futures between 20:24 and 20:25 Beijing time on Friday evening. Based on the prices at that time, these transactions were valued at approximately $760 million. Later, around 20:45, the Iranian Foreign Minister announced that the Strait of Hormuz would be fully open to all commercial ships during the remaining ceasefire period, causing oil prices to drop by as much as 11% within minutes. In recent months, several large and timely trades have raised concerns among US lawmakers and legal experts that decisions related to war and diplomacy may provide certain traders with an advantage in the volatile and opaque derivatives market. It has been reported that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating a series of crude oil futures trades, including those on March 23 and April 7, which occurred shortly before significant policy adjustments were made by Trump regarding the Iran conflict.