VIX Speculators raised their bets into a new bullish position this week

November 3, 2018 – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email

VIX Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large volatility speculators boosted their bets in the VIX futures markets this week to a new bullish level, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

The non-commercial futures contracts of VIX futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 1,998 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 30th. This was a weekly boost of 12,301 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -10,303 net contracts.

The speculative position for VIX futures has now seen improvement (declining bearish bets) for four straight weeks and landed this week at a new bullish level. This is the first bullish net position since May 8th (a span of 26 weeks) when the net position totaled 17,589 contracts.

VIX Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 1,468 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decrease of -11,968 contracts from the total net of 13,436 contracts reported the previous week.

VIX Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the VIX Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $20.92 which was a boost of $2.10 from the previous close of $18.82, according to unofficial market data.

*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the most recent Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

Article By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email