I am still short crude oil but going to hedge by going long Brent, which has outperformed crude over the last few years. Its possible the long term trend is reversing.
Sometimes it is just best to cut out. In this business, creativity does not always help. You will end up managing two trades with this spread.
Is your present short CL position you mention underwater at present ? We must be looking at different data. For the past several weeks the Nymex WTI contract has strengthened versus the ICE Brent contract using both consolidated, continuous front month data and the March 2019 contracts.
I initiated my short position in crude on 25th October so I'm doing OK with it. Over the last few weeks crude has outperformed brent but over 3, 6 months brent has outperformed. It depends on one's time horizon I suppose...