Oil - spread dread sell-off

The smoking gun behind last week's crude oil rout? Massive liquidation of managed money crude oil spreads. Spread trades benefiting from the shift in term structure from contango to backwardation had grown by +309,766 contracts or +94% since May/20 in the managed money category. The week ended 3/23/20 saw that position slump -135,402 contracts or -21%. Reason? ..... well a 12-month CL strip above $63/bbl and 1vs12 backwardation over $6/bbl are a couple of good ones.