Hedge funds meet banking crisis with epic short treasury bets

Hedge funds supercharged bearish Treasury bets to historic levels just days before the US banking crisis took a turn for the worse and spurred a rush for the world’s safest assets.

Leveraged funds pushed total shorts in U.S. bond futures to a new record in the week to May 2, according to a gauge of aggregate net positions based on the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It’s a seventh straight week of increased bearish bets – the longest streak since 2017.