By CountingPips.com | Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets fell lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators decreased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a fourth straight week and brought speculative positions to their lowest level since April, 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, totaled a net position of +289,581 contracts in the data reported for July 19th. This was a change of -5,214 contracts from the previous week’s total of +294,795 net contracts for the data reported through July 12th.
Spec positions are now at their lowest level since April 12th when net positions totaled +289,161 contracts.
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WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) raised their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -296,002 contracts through July 19th. This is a weekly change of -2,650 contracts from the total net amount of -293,352 contracts on July 12th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday July 12th to Tuesday July 19th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, fell from $11.19 to $10.70, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
*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
