S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders raised their bullish net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last week following three weeks of decline, 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 S&P500 futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 4,238 contracts in the data reported through April 25th. This was a weekly rise of 1,775 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 2,463 net contracts.
Large speculative bets on the SP500 had fallen by approximately -10,000 contracts over the previous three weeks before last week’s rebound.
S&P500 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 -11,356 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -5,407 contracts from the total net of -5,949 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 index closed at approximately 2388.61 which was a gain of 46.42 from the previous close of 2342.18, according to market data.
*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
