Short sellers who heavily bet on a sharp drop in crude oil prices mostly suffered heavy losses.

A wave of crude oil traders went on a short-selling spree, betting that oil prices would fall from their war-driven highs, but most have suffered heavy losses. Data shows that in March, ETF investors poured $977 million into the ProShares UltraShort Bloomberg Crude Oil ETF (SCO), marking the fund's largest monthly inflow since its inception in 2008. SCO provides twice the inverse return on daily crude oil price movements. Despite the record inflows, SCO's total assets remained at only $970 million, lower than the total inflows for the month. Rocky Fishman, founder of the Asym 500, said, "This is betting that 'the war will end soon.'" The fund rose 8% after President Trump again hinted at a possible end to the war with Iran, but still fell 41% in March, its worst performance in nearly six years. However, short-selling only represents half the picture; long-only funds also saw record inflows. The U.S. Oil Fund (USO) attracted approximately $700 million in March, the largest monthly inflow since the pandemic began, while the U.S. Brent Crude Oil Fund (BNO) attracted $600 million, a record high. The market is highly polarized, with leveraged funds hedging their bets on both sides. (Jinshi)