The highly concentrated flurry in Brent and WTI futures could signal possible insider knowledge that triggered a sell-off, the outlet has suggested.
Oil traders placed more than half a billion dollars (USD) in bets minutes before US President Donald Trump announced “productive” talks with Iran on Monday, the Financial Times has reported.
A burst of activity followed by a sharp price drop has raised questions about possible advance knowledge among market participants.
About 6,200 Brent and WTI futures contracts changed hands between 6:49 AM and 6:50 AM in New York – a one-minute flurry worth $580 million, based on FT calculations using Bloomberg data. Volumes in both benchmarks – Brent and US West Texas Intermediate – spiked simultaneously, about 27 seconds before 6:50 AM, while S&P 500 futures surged shortly after.
The trades came roughly 15 minutes before Trump said on Truth Social there had been “productive conversations” with Tehran to end the war in Iran.
His 7:04 AM post triggered a sharp sell-off in global energy markets, while S&P 500 futures and European equities rallied as investors pared bets on a prolonged conflict.
It was unclear who was behind the trades, the FT noted.
“It’s hard to prove causality… but you have to wonder who would have been relatively aggressive at selling futures at that point, 15 minutes before Trump’s post,” a US broker strategist told the outlet.
Under the rules of CME Group – the Chicago-based exchange that hosts trading in benchmark Brent and WTI crude futures – large trader positions must be disclosed daily, though the identity of specific traders is not publicly available in real time.
The concentrated one-minute spike stands out even against typically high trading volumes, which usually run into hundreds of thousands of contracts over a full session.
The timing of the trades – and who could have benefited – raised questions, though the White House pushed back, denying that any administration official illegally profited from insider knowledge.
“The only focus of President Trump and Trump administration officials is doing what’s best for the American people,” spokesperson Kush Desai said, calling any suggestion of insider profiteering “baseless and irresponsible.”
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, later denied any talks with Washington, sending global stocks lower and lifting energy markets. He said “fake news” was being used to manipulate oil and financial markets and help the United States and Israel “escape the quagmire” they face.
Oil prices rebounded on Tuesday, with Brent above $103 a barrel and WTI near $91, as uncertainty over Iran kept markets volatile.
Image credit: Maxim Hopman
Different Rothschild banks in different countries made huge profits through insider trading when they financed both sides of the Trafalgar and Waterloo wars 200 years ago. Nelson Rockefeller similarly financed both sides of the Vietnam war for profit 60 years ago. The internet today allows the much faster extraction of profit in similar circumstances.
They all got those time jumping device now, that’s how all that gazumping been happening forever.
Prior to Waterloo the Rothschilds made huge profits by smuggling contraband into French controlled areas of the Benelux area and Germany.
Of course it was insider trading. Of course they can find out very quickly – if they want to – who the ,traders were. The Stock Market is just a casino and it is a very odd way to run the world’s economy.
It’s a big club, and not only are we not in it, we are the marks/suckers who not only fund their game, we also socialize ‘their’ losses.
https://www.youtube.com/live/u0qcDZIDB-I?si=-UeyI-9G_sfv6zd-
Daniel Davis/ col. mc greggor
You don’t get rich in PoliTICKS unless you participate in the privilege of ‘Insider Trading’…that is an acknowleged given, and it runs parallel to putting Israel first over all else.
ALL of the (s)elected parasitic creatures in D.C. never emerge from the House or Senate poorer than they went in…Pelosi is a grand example of this!
Those politicians who discover the injustices of government end up in jail or assassinated! (ie JKF, RFK, MLK, Traficant, Hanson, Wellstone, etc.)
THAT is why we as New Zealanders should be watchful, vigilant, and demand openness and accountability from those in Parliament, so that they are pressured to serve New Zealand first and foremost WITHOUT COMPROMISE, DEFLECTIVE JIBBERISH, AND FREE FROM GLOBAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES (ie Covid, supporting Israel & the Ukraine, allowing Zionist influences in the media and in Parliament, etc.)
Newsflash: All wars are (small hat) banker wars.
…got it right here for all to see..!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXeAIxK7rY4
“”Trump said on Truth Social there had been “productive conversations” with Tehran to end the war in Iran.”
He may have said this but there’s no truth with what he says. Not when AI BB says they’ll decide when this war ends and Iran says not until Israel is destroyed. Trump hasn’t said one ounce of truth.
This type or trading isn’t helping the economy. It is the exact opposite.
Not only should it be outlawed, it should be a criminal offence with a lengthy prison sentence.
But it is outlawed !!
Then most politicians and many lawyers, accountants, business people and several others will all be in jail. (Which is where they all belong!!)
Iran has only one message for American soldiers: “Come closer.”
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/03/24/765806/Iran-trained-in-asymmetrical-warfare-for-two-decades-waiting-for-US-troops-Defense-official%C2%A0
Quite. Soldiers sent to their slaughter. The terrain alone in Iran is formidable let alone over 100,000 soldiers on the alert but isn’t this what the war is about? Sacrificing young lives to some mythology creature so that they may have their pact. What a bunch of freaks!