S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators further decreased their net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last week for a second consecutive 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 S&P500 futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -5,400 contracts in the data reported through May 9th. This was a weekly decline of -3,479 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -1,921 net contracts.
The large speculator positions are now in negative territory for a second straight week and have fallen to the lowest level since October 7th of 2014 when net positions totaled -7,327 contracts.
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 6,905 contracts last week. This is a weekly rise of 12,068 contracts from the total net of -5,163 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 index closed at approximately 2396.91 which was a gain of 5.75 from the previous close of 2391.16, 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
