Hedge funds and other money managers raised bullish bets on Brent crude to the highest in more than two years, according to ICE Futures Europe. Speculative bets that prices will rise, in futures and options combined, outnumbered short positions by 231,962 lots in the week to Aug. 27, the London-based exchange said today in its weekly Commitments of Traders report. That’s up 11 percent from last week and is the most since at least January 2011, the starting point for the data series. Bearish positions by producers, merchants, processors and users of Brent outnumbered bullish positions by 411,529, a 2 percent expansion from the week before, leaving their net-short position at the largest since the data began. Brent advanced 3.8 percent in the week to Aug. 27 to $114.36 a barrel and traded at $114.30 as of 12:01 p.m. local time today. ICE publishes, usually each Monday, aggregate numbers for long and short positions for speculators such as hedge funds and institutional investors, as well as commercial companies that buy or sell futures to protect against price moves. Analysts and investors follow changes in speculators’ positions because such transactions can reflect an expectation of a change in prices. Swaps dealers reduced net-long positions in Brent to the lowest since April 16, by 8.1 percent to 191,606. Money managers’ net-long bets on European gasoil rose for a second week, climbing 15 percent to 75,832 lots, the highest since March 5. To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

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