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S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders decreased their net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last 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 futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 7,413 contracts in the data reported through December 6th. This was a weekly change of -1,584 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 8,997 net contracts.
Speculators have now decreased their positions for three out of the last four weeks.
S&P500 Commercial Positions:
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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 4,256 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -2,269 contracts from the total net of 6,525 contracts reported the previous week.
S&P500 Stock Market Index vs Speculators:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 index closed at approximately 2212.23 which was a change of 7.57 from the previous close of 2204.65, according to market data from Yahoo Finance.
*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