Short sellers heavily bet on a crash in crude oil, most facing significant losses

MeNews · 2026-04-09T05:00:25+00:00

A group of crude oil traders heavily shorted bets on falling oil prices, resulting in most incurring losses. ETF investors poured a record $977 million into SCO, but the fund still declined 41% in March. Meanwhile, long-position funds also set records, leading to a highly polarized market.

MeNews

2026-04-09 05:00:25

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ME News message on April 2 (UTC+8): a batch of crude oil traders went aggressively short, betting that oil prices would fall back from the war-driven high level—but so far, most traders have suffered a major setback. Data shows that in March, ETF investors poured $977 million into the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (SCO), setting a record for the fund’s largest single-month inflow since it was launched in 2008. SCO provides twice the inverse return of crude oil price movements on a daily basis. Despite the record inflows, SCO’s total assets are still only $970 million, which is lower than the total inflows for the full month.

Asym 500 founder Rocky Fishman said, “This is a bet that ‘the war will end soon.’” After President Trump again hinted that the Iran war might be ending, the fund rose 8%, but it still fell 41% in March, marking the worst performance in nearly six years. However, short bets are only half the market picture—long funds also set records. The U.S. Oil Fund (USO) attracted about $700 million in March, the largest single-month inflow since the pandemic. The U.S. Brent crude oil fund (BNO) pulled in $600 million, the highest on record. The market is highly polarized, with leveraged funds hedging their bets on both sides. (Jin10) (Source: ODAILY)

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