By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email
S&P500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators sharply raised their bullish net positions in the S&P500 Mini futures markets this 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 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 198,805 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday May 15th. This was a weekly increase of 36,450 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 162,355 net contracts.
Speculative positions rebounded this week after falling by -66,878 contracts in the previous week. The overall net position remains under the +200,000 contracts for the second week in a row after six weeks above that threshold.
S&P500 Mini Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -511,373 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decline of -46,369 contracts from the total net of -465,004 contracts reported the previous week.
The commercials bearish positions have increased for seven out of the past eight weeks and are now at the largest bearish level since 1997.
SPY ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the SPY ETF, which tracks the price of S&P500 Index, closed at approximately $271.1 which was a gain of $4.18 from the previous close of $266.92, according to unofficial market data.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the most recent 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 – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email