VIX Speculators pushed bearish bets higher for a 5th straight week

August 11, 2018 – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email

VIX Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:

Large volatility speculators continued to bet against volatility and increased their bearish net positions in the VIX 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 VIX futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -113,789 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 7th. This was a weekly decline of -10,283 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -103,506 net contracts.

The speculative bearish position has now risen by at least -10,000 contracts for five consecutive weeks and bearish bets have now gained for eight out of the past ten weeks. The overall net bearish standing is at the highest level since December 19th of 2017 when the net position totaled -128,583 contracts.

VIX Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 120,385 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 10,790 contracts from the total net of 109,595 contracts reported the previous week.

VIX:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the VIX, which tracks the volatility of the S&P500, closed at approximately 10.93 which was a decline of -1.90 from the previous close of 12.83, 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