Traders Place Record Bets Against Oil: Could Prices Fall to $70?
Traders positioned report bets in opposition to oil on Tuesday. Volume in Brent put choices topped 764,000 contracts, in accordance to preliminary ICE Futures Europe knowledge cited by Bloomberg.
A put choice pays off when costs fall beneath a set stage. Some of Tuesday’s greatest trades pay provided that oil drops to about $70 by December, from roughly $96 now.
Record Bets Against Oil Target $70 by December
December $70/$69 put spreads alone topped 110,000 contracts. An expansion pairs two choices a greenback aside, capping each the price and the payout. These positions revenue provided that Brent, the worldwide oil benchmark, sinks beneath $70.
However, the report overstates pure bearish conviction. Narrow spreads made up greater than half of Tuesday’s quantity, per the identical ICE knowledge. Traders typically use them to hedge current positions somewhat than guess outright.
Why Oil Fell More Than 10% in Eight Days
Brent traded close to $106 on September 14. By Tuesday, it briefly slipped beneath $98, its sixth straight each day loss and the longest run since August 2025. The slide reversed a war-driven rally because the Strait of Hormuz stayed largely shut.
Two developments drove the promoting. First, U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the UN General Assembly. President Donald Trump praised the three-hour session.
“They had an excellent assembly, a really productive assembly,” Al Jazeera reported, citing Trump.
Iran mentioned it might reopen Hormuz inside seven days if Washington eased army stress. Its phrases additionally embody lifting the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and releasing frozen property.
Second, Saudi Aramco restarted its East-West pipeline on Tuesday, Hydrocarbon Processing reported. The line carries crude to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, avoiding Hormuz. Drones knocked it offline on September 13.
What Stands Between Oil and $70
Oil steadied on Wednesday. Brent spot traded close to $96.64, whereas U.S. crude rose 1.1% to about $94.63, TradingView knowledge confirmed. Reaching $70 would require an additional fall of roughly 28%.
No U.S.-Iran settlement has been introduced. The Saudi pipeline additionally restarted at a low price, and a safety supply mentioned restoring about 4 million barrels a day might take weeks.
Earlier this month, JPMorgan dropped its forecast baseline, saying it might now not mannequin the warfare’s endgame.
The publish Traders Place Record Bets Against Oil: Could Prices Fall to $70? appeared first on BeInCrypto.