S&P500 Mini Speculators bullish bets rebound after 2 down weeks

December 15th 2018 – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email

S&P500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large stock market speculators boosted their bullish net positions in the S&P500 Mini 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 S&P500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 174,179 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 11th. This was a weekly gain of 70,103 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 104,076 net contracts.

This week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position increasing by 21,568 contracts to a weekly total of 438,055 contracts compared to the gross bearish position which saw a fall by -48,535 contracts for the week to a total of 263,876 contracts.

The speculative position had fallen for the previous two weeks and by a total of -120,194 net contracts over that time period. This week’s rebound marked the best once week gain since March and brought the net position back to right below the bullish level of +175,000 contracts.

S&P500 Mini Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -278,770 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decrease of -96,378 contracts from the total net of -182,392 contracts reported the previous week.

S&P500 Mini Futures:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 Mini Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $2641.25 which was a decrease of $-60.50 from the previous close of $2701.75, 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