Hedge funds increase bullish bets on US gasoline by most since US-Iran war began

Money managers are piling into gasoline bets at a pace not seen since the opening weeks of the US-Iran conflict. Net long positions in NYMEX RBOB gasoline futures and options climbed by 5,533 lots during the week ending August 25, reaching 79,858 contracts, according to the CFTC’s Commitments of Traders report. That weekly jump is the largest since February 24, the period immediately preceding US and Israeli military action against Iran. With the national average gasoline price sitting around $4.09 per gallon, the trade is less a contrarian gamble and more a bet that an already tight market gets tighter. The positioning in context A net long position of 79,858 contracts is the highest in six months. To translate: each RBOB futures contract represents 42,000 gallons of gasoline, so the aggregate speculative bet now covers roughly 3.35 billion gallons of the stuff. The buildup isn’t limited to gasoline, either. Hedge funds have been adding bullish exposure across the refined fuels complex, with similar positioning trends showing up in US diesel and crude oil futures. Non-commercial traders, the CFTC’s classification for speculative players like hedge funds and commodity trading advis...