Before Trump announced the ceasefire, $950 million worth of crude oil short positions were precisely entered. U.S. lawmakers urge investigation into "suspicious" transactions.

Mars Finance news: On April 9, according to Reuters, just hours before U.S. President Trump announced a ceasefire agreement with Iran, the crude oil market saw extremely rare abnormal trades. On Tuesday at 19:45 GMT, during a post-settlement inactive period, investors suddenly sold a total of 8,600 lots of Brent and U.S. oil futures, with a total position value of about $950 million. Less than three hours later, Trump officially announced a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. Hit by the news, on Wednesday crude oil futures opened down sharply by about 15%, falling below the $100 mark. This means that the “precise ambush” short position made an extremely large profit within just a few hours. This is not an isolated incident. On March 23, 15 minutes before Trump announced a delay in strikes on Iran’s energy facilities, the market also saw $500 million worth of abnormal short orders; afterward, oil prices likewise fell by 15% in response. Data show that since tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated, daily crude oil trading volume has doubled to the million-lot level. Representative Ritchie Torres has officially sent a letter to the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) and the CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission), urging an investigation into its “suspicious” trades. Torres noted that these trades are highly targeted in terms of speed, scale, and structure, and that the relevant accounts must be checked. At present, the CME and the SEC have refused to comment, while the CFTC previously said it was “watching” market anomalies. (Jin10)