Copper Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders reduced their net positions in the copper futures markets in the final week of 2016 for a second straight week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 45,763 contracts in the data reported through December 27th. This was a weekly change of -6,263 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 52,026 net contracts.
Copper speculative positions have now fallen two consecutive weeks after a strong run of seven weekly gains that saw copper positions crossover into bullish territory and surge to the highest level in years.
Copper Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -48,382 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of 4,170 contracts from the total net of -52,552 contracts reported the previous week.
Copper ETN:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the JJC iPath Bloomber Copper ETN, which tracks the price of copper, closed at approximately $28.92 which was a change of $0.23 from the previous close of $28.69, according to market data from Yahoo Finance.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures 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
