By CountingPips.com
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s continued to reduce oil bets last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators cut back on their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a sixth consecutive week and brought bullish positions to the lowest level since March, 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 +267,192 contracts in the data reported for August 2nd. This was a change of -6,107 contracts from the previous week’s total of +273,299 net contracts for the data reported through July 26th.
Speculative bullish bets are now at the lowest level since March 8th when total net positions equaled +244,252 contracts.
Free Reports:
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) decreased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -279,702 contracts through August 2nd. This is a weekly change of +4,639 contracts from the total net amount of -284,341 contracts on July 26th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday July 26th to Tuesday August 2nd, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, fell from $10.08 to $9.33, 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
