By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators cut their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week for a second straight week and to the lowest level since February, 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, declined to a total net position of +383,093 contracts in the data reported for May 6th. This was a change of -19,234 contracts from the previous week’s total of +402,327 net contracts for the data reported through April 29th.
Last week’s decline was the second straight weekly retreat in bullish positions and brought the overall bullish standing to the lowest level since February 11th when net positions totaled +382,334 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 29th to Tuesday May 6th, the crude oil price fell from $100.58 to $99.81 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed a decline from $108.86 to $107.12 per barrel from Tuesday April 29th to Tuesday May 6th, 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 |
| 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 |
| 05/06/2014 | 1638412 | 492901 | 109808 | 383093 | -19234 | 99.81 |
*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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