Traders place $760 million bet on falling oil ahead of Hormuz announcement

BusinessInternationalTraders place $760 million bet on falling oil ahead of Hormuz announcementBy Reuters -Apr 17, 2026LONDON: Traders placed a bet worth about $760 million on a falling oil price around 20 minutes before Iran’s foreign ​minister announced on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was open, ‌another sizeable wager on the world’s most traded commodity ahead of major announcements in the course of the Middle East war. Large, well‑timed trades in recent months ​have drawn concern from U.S. lawmakers and legal experts that ​decisions around war and diplomacy can give some traders an ⁠edge in volatile and opaque derivatives markets. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. Between 1224 GMT and ​1225 GMT, investors sold a combined 7,990 lots of Brent crude futures, ​according to LSEG data. Based on the price at the time, these trades were worth about $760 million. At 1245 GMT, Iran’s foreign minister posted on X that the passage for ​all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was declared completely ​open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, in line with the ceasefire in ‌Lebanon. The ⁠announcement pushed crude down as much as 11% on the day in the minutes that followed. Reuters reported that on April 7, bets worth around $950 million took place just hours ahead of the U.S. and ​Iran announcing a ​two-week ceasefire. On ⁠March 23, investors sold $500 million in 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he ​would delay attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure, triggering a ​15% ⁠drop in the crude price. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating a series of oil futures trades, including those on March 23 and April ⁠7, ​that were placed shortly before major policy ​shifts by Trump related to the war in Iran, a person familiar with the matter said ​on Wednesday.