Investor positions in Brent crude oil futures have risen to a historic high and outnumbered contracts in U.S. futures by the most ever as more traders held the North Sea benchmark as a truer reflection of global market conditions. Brent’s open interest on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), or the number of outstanding contracts held by market players, increased to 1.99 million lots as of the end of March. That compared with 1.72 million lots for crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). For a long time, Nymex’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures had been the leading benchmark, given the United States’ position as the world’s biggest consumer, importer and trader of crude oil. That changed this decade with the shale boom, which turned the U.S. into one of the world’s top producers and reduced its need to import. At the same time, a U.S. ban on exporting […]