Mita Chaturvedi
Research Associate, Flux
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Brent shorts rise for tenth straight week
Money managers removed 24.8mb (-6.8%) from their longs and added 4mb (+3.5%) to their shorts in Brent futures....
Published: June 15, 2026
Written by:
Mita Chaturvedi
13 page report
Combined exchange-traded open interest in Brent and WTI futures eased by around 53mb (-0.8%) in the week ending 09 Jun, marking the fourth consecutive week of OI decreases. Although OI in Brent fell for a third consecutive week, OI in WTI futures dropped by 18.5mb (-0.91% w/w) in the week ending 09 Jun, following two consecutive weeks of increases.....
- Moving to positioning, in the week ending 09 Jun, money managers removed 24.8mb (-6.8%) from their longs and added 4mb (+3.5%) to their shorts in Brent futures, marking a tenth consecutive decline in the speculative long-to-short ratio, which now stands at 2.8:1.00, its lowest level since the week ending 27 Jan. Meanwhile, producers/merchants added over 41mb (+5%) to their longs but removed 8.1mb (-0.6%) from their shorts, pointing to refiners hedging while producers unwind hedges.
- In WTI futures, money managed longs removed 5.3mb (-2.4%) in the week ending 09 Jun, while their short-positioned counterparts also trimmed 9.2mb (-7.2%) from their shorts. WTI prod/mercs were also risk off, liquidating 0.176mb (-0.03%) and 8.1mb (-2.4%) w/w from their longs and shorts, respectively.
Refined product futures
- In ICE LS gasoil, money managers were risk-off: these players removed 3.9mb (4.5%) from their longs in the week ending 09 Jun, along with 3.3mb (-9.7%) from their shorts w/w. Still, the net long-to-short ratio remained supported at 2.7:1.00, which lies in the 40th percentile for data going back to 2013.
- In heating oil futures, long money managers removed a muted 0.145mb (-0.5%) from their longs and added 2.3mb (+13%) to their shorts. Producers/merchants were risk-on, adding 7.1mb (+15.7%) to their longs and 3.0mb (+2.65%) to their shorts.
- In RBOB futures, speculative players were bearish - these players removed 2mb (-2.8%) from their longs and added 1.6mb (+33%) to their shorts in the week ending 09 Jun. This brought the net long position in RBOB futures to 64mb, its lowest level since the week ending 19 May. Nevertheless, producers/merchants were risk-on this week, adding 15mb (+17.8%) to their longs and 9mb (+5.3%) to their shorts.
- Finally, in Henry Hub futures, open interest softened by 26k lots in the week ending 09 Jun (-1.6%). Producers/merchants were risk-off, trimming 11k lots (-4.5%) from their longs and 13k lots (-4.8%) from their shorts. Speculators were notably slightly risk-on, adding 1.3k lots (+0.7%) and 9k lots (+3%) to their longs and shorts, respectively. The larger rise in shorts took the long/short ratio down from 0.620 to 0.608:1.00 w/w, which stands under the 8th percentile for data going back to 2013.
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