WTI Crude Oil Speculators raised their bullish bets for 3rd time in 4 weeks

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

WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large energy speculators boosted 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 471,536 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 6th. This was a weekly rise of 9,625 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 461,911 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) gaining by 9,165 contracts (to a weekly total of 657,787 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) declined by -460 contracts for the week (to a total of 186,251 contracts).

Crude oil speculators increased their bullish bets this week following a sharp down week last week (-10,858 contracts). The speculator position rose for the third time in the past four weeks and bullish bets have now advanced by a total of +22,170 contracts over that period. Previously, the bullish positions had dropped for five straight weeks from August 11th to September 8th which brought the net position below +500,000 contracts for the first time in 20 weeks.

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 -488,364 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decline of -7,162 contracts from the total net of -481,202 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 $40.67 which was an increase of $1.38 from the previous close of $39.29, 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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