BNO Shorts Surge as Brent Crude Slides

BNO, the United States Brent Oil Fund, sits at the centre of a sharp divergence: short interest has surged 56% in one month while the fund itself has lost 23% of its value, raising the question of whether bearish positioning is driving the slide or simply tracking it.

The short interest story here is genuinely striking. At nearly 35% of free float, shorts are running at a high level for an oil ETF that typically attracts relatively modest hedging demand. The build has been almost entirely a June phenomenon — positions were sitting closer to 24% of float in mid-May. The week-on-week move of just over 4% keeps the trend intact, even after a small pullback on June 23. The ORTEX short score has tracked the build closely, rising from near 40 mid-month to 54.5 now — a level that places BNO in the more-shorted half of the coverage universe and confirms the trend is not yet reversing.

The lending market offers an important contrast to that bearish positioning. Despite the heavy short interest, availability is actually loosening. Availability has climbed from a tight 284% on June 11 — when utilisation hit its highest point of the recent cycle near 76% — to 439% now. That is well above the 52-week low of 10.8% and suggests there is no shortage of shares to borrow. Borrowing costs have also eased back from a June 11 peak above 4.8% to just over 3.1%. The borrow market, in other words, looks comfortable for shorts even as the position continues to grow.

Options positioning adds another layer to the picture. Call demand has been dominant and increasingly so. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.08 — near the lowest reading of the past year and more than a full standard deviation below its 20-day average of 0.11. That is unusual: in a fund down 23% in a month, options buyers are not rushing for downside protection. PCR has been falling steadily since late May, when it was running at 0.17. The divergence between a crowded short position and a call-heavy options market points to two different communities with very different views on where Brent goes next.

The macro backdrop matters here in a way it rarely does for individual equities. BNO's recent note from June 12 flagged a Brent crude rally driven by Middle East geopolitical tensions and supply concerns. That rally has since reversed hard — the fund is down 3.1% this week alone and 22.7% over the past month. The June short build therefore reflects a market that has decisively repriced the geopolitical risk premium out of crude, with shorts adding exposure as the momentum turned.

What to watch next is whether the PCR trend and the SI trend continue to diverge — call buyers betting on a Brent recovery while shorts press the tape lower would be a tension worth monitoring into any OPEC-related news or further Middle East developments.