BlockBeats news: On April 18, according to Reuters, just 20 minutes before Iran’s Foreign Minister announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz locally on Friday, investors bet approximately $760 million on a short position in oil—a significant wager on the world’s most actively traded commodity ahead of major news releases during the Middle East conflict.
According to LSEG data, between 8:24 and 8:25 PM Beijing time on Friday, investors collectively sold 7,990 contracts of Brent crude oil futures. At the prevailing price, these trades amounted to approximately $7.6 billion. Shortly after, around 8:45 PM, Iran’s Foreign Minister posted that the Strait of Hormuz would remain fully open to all commercial vessels for the remainder of the ceasefire, causing the intraday oil price decline to briefly widen to 11%.
Over the past few months, a series of precisely timed large trades have raised concerns among U.S. lawmakers and legal experts that decisions related to war and diplomacy may give certain traders an advantage in the volatile and opaque derivatives market.
Previous reports have indicated that the U.S. 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 Trump made significant policy adjustments regarding Iran.