ESMA
EU securities and markets regulator; publishes MiFID II weekly positioning data for ICE Brent and ICE Gasoil futures.
Last refreshed: 18 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
What does ESMA's ICE Gasoil data reveal that the CFTC COT cannot?
Timeline for ESMA
WTI short, Brent long +58k contracts
European Oil Markets- What is ESMA's MiFID II position data for oil futures?
- ESMA publishes weekly aggregated position data for ICE Brent and ICE Gasoil futures under MiFID II, covering EU-regulated investment firms and trading venues. It is published every Monday for the prior Friday's positions and is the European equivalent of the US CFTC's COT report.Source: ESMA
- Why do oil traders use both CFTC and ESMA data for positioning analysis?
- The CFTC COT covers WTI and ICE Brent for US-regulated participants; ESMA MiFID II data adds ICE Gasoil positioning and the European-domiciled view of Brent length. Together they give a complete speculative positioning picture across the crude-to-products complex.
- Does ESMA regulate ICE Futures Europe for oil derivatives?
- Yes, under MiFID II, ICE Futures Europe (London) is a regulated trading venue that must report position data for its commodity contracts including ICE Brent and ICE Gasoil. ESMA aggregates and publishes this data weekly.Source: ESMA
Background
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is the EU's financial markets regulator, established in 2011 under Regulation 1095/2010, headquartered in Paris. It directly supervises credit rating agencies and trade repositories, and under MiFID II requires investment firms and trading venues to report weekly commodity derivatives position data that ESMA publishes as aggregated weekly reports.
ESMA's weekly MiFID II position report for ICE Brent and ICE Gasoil futures is the European complement to the CFTC's COT, published Monday each week covering prior Friday positions across EU-regulated investment firms. In the WTI-short/Brent-long divergence visible in the 28 April 2026 CFTC data, ESMA's MiFID II data provided the additional dimension: ICE Gasoil positioning from European-domiciled asset managers and banks, where the CFTC publishes no equivalent.
For oil trading desks, ESMA's data fills the CFTC gap in ICE Gasoil: it reveals whether European banks and asset managers are adding or reducing gasoil length simultaneously with CFTC crude divergence signals. The combined CFTC + ESMA read gives the full speculative positioning picture for the crude-to-products spread complex.
