By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
Oil Speculators overall long positions see the lowest level since November 2013
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large non-commercial speculators continued to decrease their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week for the ninth consecutive 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 crude oil futures, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, fell to a total net position of +317,727 contracts in the data reported for August 26th. This was a change of -5,746 contracts from the previous week’s total of +323,473 net contracts for the data reported through August 19th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures fell by a total of -5,038 contracts while the short positions saw a rise by +708 contracts to total an overall weekly net change of -5,746 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net positions sits at a new lowest level since November 26th 2013 when overall net positions equaled +307,539 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday August 19th to Tuesday August 26th, the crude oil price rose slightly from $92.86 to $93.86 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also traded a bit higher from $101.56 to $102.50 per barrel from Tuesday August 19th to Tuesday August 26th, according to price data from investing.com.
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Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price | Brent Price |
| 07/22/2014 | 1642836 | 467574 | 96130 | 371444 | -28159 | 102.39 | 107.33 |
| 07/29/2014 | 1628926 | 470115 | 105376 | 364739 | -6705 | 100.97 | 107.72 |
| 08/05/2014 | 1587187 | 450544 | 103340 | 347204 | -17535 | 97.38 | 104.61 |
| 08/12/2014 | 1583609 | 433331 | 109265 | 324066 | -23138 | 97.37 | 103.89 |
| 08/19/2014 | 1542337 | 429288 | 105815 | 323473 | -593 | 92.86 | 101.56 |
| 08/26/2014 | 1550253 | 424250 | 106523 | 317727 | -5746 | 93.86 | 102.50 |
*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading 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 – Forex Trading News
