By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators decreased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures for the first time in six weeks last week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial contracts of crude oil futures, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, fell to a total net position of +402,327 contracts in the data reported for April 29th. This was a change of -7,798 contracts for the week. The previous week had seen a total of +410,125 net contracts in the data through April 22nd.
The decline was the first retreat in bullish positions since March 18th and stopped a string of five weekly advances that brought bullish positions to the highest standing since March 4th (+425,818 net contracts).
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 22nd to Tuesday April 29th, the crude oil price fell from $101.92 to $100.58 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed a decline from $109.44 to $108.86 per barrel from Tuesday April 22nd to Tuesday April 29th, according to prices from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price |
| 03/25/2014 | 1604566 | 498080 | 106906 | 391174 | 6889 | 99.19 |
| 04/01/2014 | 1644507 | 502389 | 110606 | 391783 | 609 | 99.61 |
| 04/08/2014 | 1655472 | 512035 | 112248 | 399787 | 8004 | 102.33 |
| 04/15/2014 | 1674276 | 523490 | 113939 | 409551 | 9764 | 103.78 |
| 04/22/2014 | 1619737 | 517023 | 106898 | 410125 | 574 | 101.92 |
| 04/29/2014 | 1651521 | 522018 | 119691 | 402327 | -7798 | 100.58 |
*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading 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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