By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators raised their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week after declines the previous two weeks, 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, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, rose to a total net position of +387,739 contracts in the data reported for May 13th. This was a change of +4,646 contracts from the previous week’s total of +383,093 net contracts for the data reported through May 6th.
Last week’s modest increase brings non-commercial net positions back from the lowest level since February 11th when net positions totaled +382,334 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 6th to Tuesday May 13th, the crude oil price gained from $99.81 to $101.86 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed a rise from $107.12 to $108.67 per barrel from Tuesday May 6th to Tuesday May 13th, according to prices from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price |
| 04/08/2014 | 1655472 | 512035 | 112248 | 399787 | 8004 | 102.33 |
| 04/15/2014 | 1674276 | 523490 | 113939 | 409551 | 9764 | 103.78 |
| 04/22/2014 | 1619737 | 517023 | 106898 | 410125 | 574 | 101.92 |
| 04/29/2014 | 1651521 | 522018 | 119691 | 402327 | -7798 | 100.58 |
| 05/06/2014 | 1638412 | 492901 | 109808 | 383093 | -19234 | 99.81 |
| 05/13/2014 | 1627403 | 495080 | 107341 | 387739 | 4646 | 101.86 |
*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
