Vincent Wu
Research Associate, Flux
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CFTC Weekly: Funds Bearish Crude
Funds stayed bearish in crude, added shorts in products
Published: July 6, 2026
Written by:
Vincent Wu
13 page report
We continued to see interest drop in Brent futures, as OI dropped by -0.86% in the week to 30 Jun..
- Funds were bearish again as prices continued their downtrend. We continued to see managed money length being slashed, and outright length in Brent is its lowest since the week to 16 Dec after a -10.76% w/w drop in long positions. This is the largest percentage drop since October. Short fund positions continued to increase for the 13th week, by 2.91% w/w. Outright fund short positions are extremely high at over 169mb, placing them in the 98th percentile of historical managed money short positions. Consequently, the managed money long-to-short ratio in Brent is in the 8th percentile for all weeks since 2013.
- In the week to 23 Jun, WTI saw a substantial drop in interest, with a w/w -4.77% drop in OI. Although the pattern has been less reliable w/w than in Brent, the week to 23 Jun saw funds flip bearish in WTI, with a -4.76% drop in overall length, and a 2.31% addition to their short positions. This brought the managed by money net position to below the 18th percentile for the weeks since 2013.
- In ICE LS gasoil, managed by money length increased for the third week in the week to 30 Jun, but by only 0.31%. This increased net fund length after the substantial drops seen in the past month or so, with outright length at over 90mb, its strongest in 6 weeks. After a significant removal of sell-side risk from funds earlier in the month prior, the week to 30 Jun saw these players continue to add to their short positions for a second week. There was an 8.24% increase in managed money short positions, the most significant w/w percentage increase in shorts in 11 weeks. The net long-to-short ratio dropped w/w to 2.98:1.00, which lies in the 45th percentile for data going back to 2013, showing a relatively balanced fund positioning in gasoil.
- In RBOB futures, open interest increased by around 1.83% in the week, recovering total OI from the drop the week prior. For the second consecutive week, we have seen funds be risk-on, adding both long and short positions in the week to 23 Jun. Managed money length increased by 7.78% w/w, with their short positions increasing by a more significant 25.35% w/w. This is the fourth consecutive week of substantial adds to short speculative positions in RBOB. However, the small outright value is just 11.2mb, so these w/w changes may look disproportionally important, on a percentile change. This being said, the outright short positions held by managed money players are at their highest in 18 weeks. Another week of risk-on positioning skewed to the short side led the ratio to drop to the 66th percentile for all weeks to 2013, the most balanced the spec market has been in around 20 weeks.
- Funds were bearish in ULSD Heating Oil, with length dropping by -5.79% w/w. Funds added 5.69% to their short positions, which have increased by over 34% in the past four weeks. This is the highest the short fund positions have been in heating oil since the week to 24 Feb. Managed money net position, therefore, continued to drop, with the long:short ratio dropping to below the 30th percentile for all weeks since 2013, showing a growingly short-skewed market.
- There was a -1.91% w/w drop in OI in the week to 23 Jun in Natural Gas (Henry Hub). This is the largest removal of risk from HH in 13 weeks. There were relatively small w/w net changes from managed by money players, with length increasing by 1.89% w/w, which is the fourth consecutive increase. Short positions rose by 0.55%, all but flat w/w. This allowed the long:short ratio to rise to the 30th percentile for all weeks since 2013, its most balanced since late March.
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