Oil Bulls Cap Wackiest Year-End in Decade With Bet on 2019 Rally - Bloomberg

Oil Bulls Cap Wackiest Year-End in Decade With Bet on 2019 Rally - Bloomberg:

Hedge funds are keeping their cool in the most tumultuous end of the year for oil since the 2008 financial crisis, betting on better days ahead.

They boosted wagers on rising Brent prices for a third straight week amid expectations that OPEC and allies will follow through on a deal to reduce output. The vote of confidence comes against a backdrop of turmoil in financial markets that saw one measure of oil-price volatility jump the most on record in November and head for its highest year-end level in a decade.

“There is a little more optimism and neutrality coming into markets and we’re getting some positive signs,” said Ashley Petersen, an oil analyst at Stratas Advisors LLC in New York. “It’s not as if demand is tanking tomorrow and supply is going to triple. We’re seeing a little more rationale enter markets, a little more of a wait-and-see mode.”