WTI Crude Oil Speculators decreased their bullish bets for 5th straight week

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

WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large energy speculators continued to decrease 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 432,638 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 30th. This was a weekly fall of -22,640 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 455,278 net contracts.

This week’s decline in bullish bets marks the fifth straight weekly reduction and the seventh shortfall out of the past eight weeks. Bullish bets have fallen by -127,447 contracts since the beginning of October. The current standing has now slid to the lowest bullish standing since October 17th of 2107 (a span of 55 weeks) when the net position totaled 429,525 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 -467,071 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 35,744 contracts from the total net of -502,815 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 $66.18 which was a drop of $-0.25 from the previous close of $66.43, 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