WTI Crude Oil Speculators continued to cut back on their bullish bets for 6th week

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

WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large energy speculators once again cut back on their bullish net positions in the WTI Crude Oil futures markets this week, 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 WTI Crude Oil futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 403,783 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday November 6th. This was a weekly decrease of -28,855 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 432,638 net contracts.

This week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position sliding by -11,109 contracts to a weekly total of 554,562 contracts compared to the gross bearish position total of 150,779 contracts which saw a gain by 17,746 contracts for the week.

The speculative net position has now fallen for six straight weeks and for eight out of the past nine weeks. The current standing is now at the lowest bullish level since September 12th of 2017 when the net position totaled 374,480 contracts.

WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -446,611 contracts on the week. This was a weekly gain of 20,460 contracts from the total net of -467,071 contracts reported the previous week.

WTI Crude Oil Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the WTI Crude Oil Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $62.21 which was a decline of $-3.97 from the previous close of $66.18, 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).

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