By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
Oil Speculators overall long positions gain for just the second week since June 24th
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large speculators slightly raised their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week for just the second time since June, 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, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, edged higher to a total net position of +268,532 contracts in the data reported for November 4th. This was a change of +1,228 contracts from the previous week’s total of +267,304 net contracts for the data reported through October 28th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by a total of 7,563 contracts and outpaced a gain in the short positions by 6,335 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +1,228 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net position had previously dropped every week since June 24th 2014 (sixteen straight weeks) before a small increase on October 21st and small decline on October 28th. Last week’s slight rise marks only the second weekly gain since the start of the June downtrend.
Meanwhile, over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday October 28th to Tuesday November 4th, the WTI crude oil price dropped lower from $81.42 to $77.19 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also declined sharply from $86.03 to $82.82 per barrel from Tuesday October 28th to Tuesday November 4th, according to price data from investing.com.
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Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price | Brent Price |
| 09/30/2014 | 1485856 | 426689 | 130743 | 295946 | -106 | 91.16 | 94.67 |
| 10/07/2014 | 1503764 | 435642 | 141959 | 293683 | -2263 | 88.85 | 92.11 |
| 10/14/2014 | 1537452 | 441625 | 162845 | 278780 | -14903 | 81.84 | 85.41 |
| 10/21/2014 | 1459981 | 430349 | 150248 | 280101 | 1321 | 82.49 | 86.22 |
| 10/28/2014 | 1476289 | 428086 | 160782 | 267304 | -12797 | 81.42 | 86.03 |
| 11/04/2014 | 1498736 | 435649 | 167117 | 268532 | 1228 | 77.19 | 82.82 |
*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).
Article by CountingPips.com – Forex Trading News
