WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders continued to raise their net bullish positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets and into the final week of 2016, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial contracts of WTI crude futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 444,932 contracts in the data reported through December 27th. This was a weekly gain of 8,271 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 436,661 net contracts.
WTI speculative positions finished out the year of 2016 at their highest bullish level and on a five week rally.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
Meanwhile, 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 -459,370 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -5,273 contracts from the total net of -454,097 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $11.73 which was a slight rise of $0.11 from the previous close of $11.62, 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
