RTR: Funds load up on oil but positions look stretched

© Viktor Stoilov

REUTERS reports:

Investors continued to buy petroleum future and options, with the focus on crude, but the buying has slowed as almost all short positions have been covered and the market has begun to look stretched on the bullish side.

Hedge funds and other money managers purchased the equivalent of 25 million barrels in the six most important petroleum-related futures and options contracts over the seven days ending on Sept. 19.

Fund managers had purchased a total of 155 million barrels in the three weeks since Aug. 29, according to position records filed with ICE Futures Europe and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

As in previous weeks, the buying was focused almost entirely on crude, with significant purchases of both Brent (+18 million barrels) and NYMEX and ICE WTI (+17 million barrels)…

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