WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators increased their net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets for the third straight week through Tuesday of last 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 WTI crude futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 443,883 contracts in the data reported through April 18th. This was a weekly gain of 6,840 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 437,043 net contracts.
WTI speculative bets are now at their highest level since March 7th when net positions totaled 508,525 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil 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 -445,250 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -15,852 contracts from the total net of -429,398 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 $11.04 which was a shortfall of $-0.13 from the previous close of $11.17, according to ETF 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
