WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators sharply decreased their bullish net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets last week for a second straight 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 373,144 contracts in the data reported through May 2nd. This was a weekly drop of -38,678 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 411,822 net contracts.
Last week’s decrease was the second straight week of a more than a -30,000 contract decline and brought the overall bullish net position to the lowest level since November 29th when net positions totaled 287,881 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 -409,860 contracts last week. This is a weekly gain of 23,765 contracts from the total net of -433,625 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 $9.92 which was a decline of $-0.44 from the previous close of $10.36, 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
