By CountingPips.com
CFTC COT data shows speculator oil bets drifted 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 the sixth consecutive 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, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +258,250 contracts in the data reported for August 9th. This was a change of -8,942 contracts from the previous week’s total of +267,192 net contracts for the data reported through August 2nd.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) reduced their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -258,207 contracts through August 9th. This is a weekly change of +21,495 contracts from the total net amount of -279,702 contracts on August 2nd.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday August 2nd to Tuesday August 9th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, declined from $10.08 to $9.63, 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
