WTI Crude Oil Speculators slightly added to their bullish bets for 2nd straight week

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

WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large energy speculators advanced 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 472,797 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 13th. This was a weekly gain of 1,261 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 471,536 net contracts.

The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) falling by -7,854 contracts (to a weekly total of 649,933 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) dropped by a larger amount of -9,115 contracts for the week (to a total of 177,136 contracts).

The crude oil speculators edged their net positions higher this week for a second straight week and for the fourth time in the past five weeks. This week’s gain brings the overall bullish standing to the highest level of the past six weeks. Speculators are slowing building their bullish position back after a sharp decline for five straight weeks (Aug. 11th to Sept. 8th) took off a total of -86,900 net contracts from the bullish standing.

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 -496,915 contracts on the week. This was a weekly shortfall of -8,551 contracts from the total net of -488,364 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 $40.2 which was a decline of $-0.47 from the previous close of $40.67, 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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