The David Lin Report · Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Ted Oakley of Oxbow Advisors notes that short positions on oil are at historic highs, with approximately 480 million barrels shorted. He suggests that if this sentiment were to reverse, it could significantly pressure the market and potentially drive oil prices higher.
“Now, in other words, it's, I'm probably in the top 10% that it's ever been. And just to give you an idea, something like 480 million barrels, okay? Now, what that means is somebody has drunk the Kool-Aid here and they all wanted to get, there wasn't that many of them really. And so somewhere along the line, they've all wanted to be short.”
“And you can imagine, that's probably put pressure on the market to a high degree, but you can imagine what happens if that flips the other way.”