By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
Oil Speculators overall long positions gain for three out of last four weeks
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large speculators increased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week for a second 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, rose to a total net position of +276,832 contracts in the data reported for November 11th. This was a change of +8,300 contracts from the previous week’s total of +268,532 net contracts for the data reported through November 4th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures increased by a total of 6,470 contracts while the short positions fell by 1,830 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +8,300 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net position has now gained three out of the last four weeks after falling every week from June 24th to October 14th (sixteen straight weeks of decline).
Meanwhile, over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday November 4th to Tuesday November 11th, the WTI crude oil price edged higher from $77.19 to $77.94 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, saw a small decrease from $82.82 to $82.39 per barrel from Tuesday November 4th to Tuesday November 11th, 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 |
| 10/07/2014 | 1503764 | 435642 | 141959 | 293683 | -2263 | 88.85 | 92.11 |
| 10/14/2014 | 1537452 | 441625 | 162845 | 278780 | -14903 | 81.84 | 85.41 |
| 10/21/2014 | 1459981 | 430349 | 150248 | 280101 | 1321 | 82.49 | 86.22 |
| 10/28/2014 | 1476289 | 428086 | 160782 | 267304 | -12797 | 81.42 | 86.03 |
| 11/04/2014 | 1498736 | 435649 | 167117 | 268532 | 1228 | 77.19 | 82.82 |
| 11/11/2014 | 1509371 | 442119 | 165287 | 276832 | 8300 | 77.94 | 82.39 |
*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
