Martha Dowding
Research Associate, Flux
CFTC Weekly: Interest Exodus
Crude OI fell, Funds' Brent net length -18%. Refined OI dropped, while NatGas saw rising fund length.
Published: March 9, 2026
Written by:
Martha Dowding
13 page report
Brent futures saw its fifth-largest ever w/w drop in open interest in the week to 03 Mar. OI dropped by -252.7mb (-7.65% w/w) as both long and short prod/merc players and money managers removed positions.
- There was a less severe drop in OI for WTI, but there was a 1.41% drop in the week with long-positioned prod/merc players adding length in the week, but short prod/merc and long and short funds closing positions.
- In Brent, funds' net positioning dropped by 18% in the week, with long and short positions closing. Short positions in Brent are now at their lowest since the week to 05 Aug. Long positions saw the largest w/w drop since the week to 08 Aug, dropping by 14%.
- Money managers were risk-off in WTI futures, removing both long and short positions in fairly even amounts, with a 1% increase in net positioning in the week. Long funds closed 3.15% and short fund positions dropped by 5.39%.
- In the week to 03 Mar, M1 Brent saw a huge rally after the strikes on Iran by the US and Israel over the weekend and the following retaliation and escalation on and from surrounding countries. Given the huge drop in OI in Brent, the spec market is less crowded with length. However, given the length in the market, crude prices are vulnerable to a rapid correction should the risk premia ease. However, there is also further upside for prices, as the long: short ratio dropped by 10 percentiles in the week, to the 39th percentile for all weeks since 2013.
- In the refined products, ICE gasoil saw an 8.29% drop in overall open interest in the week to 03 Mar. This is the lowest OI has been in 11 weeks. Both long and short positioned prod/merc players removed positions, with 14.28% of short positions closed in the week, the largest percentage removal of sell-side hedging since June. Funds removed 15.6% of their length and added around 5% to short positions, which led to a 23% decrease in fund net positioning in the week to 03 Mar.
- In US gasoline, total open interest dropped by 11.45% which is the largest percentage w/w drop since October 2023. Managed by money players closed long and short positions, leading to a 4% drop in fund net positioning and a 22.72% drop in short fund positions. There has been a 75% reduction in short positions in RBOB over the past 6 weeks.
- Funds were risk on in Natural Gas (Henry Hub), over the week. Short positions rose by 43% over the past 5 weeks. Managed by money length is at a 5-week high, following an 8.32% w/w increase.
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