S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators slightly pared their bearish net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last 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 -4,571 contracts in the data reported through May 16th. This was a weekly gain of 829 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -5,400 net contracts.
Large SP500 speculators had decreased their net positions in the previous two weeks and brought the net level into negative territory for the first time since February.
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 5,756 contracts last week. This is a weekly decline of -1,149 contracts from the total net of 6,905 contracts reported the previous week.
SPY ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the SPY ETF closed at approximately 240.08 which was a gain of 0.64 from the previous close of 239.44, 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
