Money managers are overwhelmingly betting that oil prices will continue to rise in the short term as geopolitical wild cards trump concerns that U.S. shale and other non-OPEC supply growth could offset part of OPEC’s efforts to further tighten the oil market. The longs to shorts ratio in the six major petroleum contracts rose to record highs last week—a sign that hedge funds and other portfolio managers are certain that the direction for oil prices in the coming weeks is up. In addition, over the past two weeks, options traders have boosted their bets on Brent rising to $80 a barrel, and calls on Brent at $80 is the most crowded options trade on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, followed by call options on Brent at $70 a distant second. Options traders hold nearly 137 million barrels worth of $80 Brent call options, a 37-percent jump from two weeks […]