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Investors built crude oil short positions worth nearly $950 million just hours before the United States and Iran announced a ceasefire on April 7, according to U.S. time, Reuters reported, citing data from LSEG.
On April 7, investors sold a total of 8,600 Brent and WTI crude oil futures contracts at 19:45 GMT. Around 22:30 GMT the same day, President Donald Trump walked back his threat to destroy “an entire civilization,” announcing a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
After the White House announcement, oil prices fell sharply to below $100 per barrel. Brent was down more than 16% and WTI was down about 13%, according to the report. The decline allowed the short positions to generate large profits, though the identities of the traders were not determined.
Reuters said large bets on the direction of oil prices are not uncommon because hedging for large volumes of physical oil contracts is common. However, such positions are rarely executed as a single large block. Traders typically place many smaller orders across multiple exchanges and rely on brokers to use algorithmic trading over hours to reduce the risk of moving prices.
Large orders are also less common after the market closes at 18:30 GMT on weekdays.
The April 7 short position resembles a similar move on March 23, when investors sold futures contracts worth $500 million just before Trump announced a delay in an attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure. That decision initially stunned the market, with oil prices falling briefly by as much as 15%.
During that session, the WTI market saw an unexpected spike in trading volume around 6:50 a.m., while S&P 500 e-mini futures also recorded a surge in volume after a large buy order hit the market. Trading activity is typically subdued at that time, making the orders unusual.
About 15 to 20 minutes later, at 7:05 a.m., Trump posted on Truth Social that he would halt plans to attack Iran’s power plants and energy infrastructure. After the announcement, crude oil prices dropped while U.S. stock-index futures rose, suggesting the traders behind those positions profited quickly.
On March 7, about 6,200 Brent futures were sold at 19:45 GMT, roughly 1% of that session’s total volume. At the same time, 2,400 WTI futures were traded, also about 1% of that day’s total volume.
Trading volume and market volatility have increased since the U.S.–Iran conflict began. In the three years before the conflict, roughly 300,000 Brent futures contracts traded daily on average. In the last four weeks, average daily Brent futures volume has more than doubled, at times surpassing 1 million contracts per day—equivalent to 1 billion barrels of oil—reported as a record high.
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