Crude Oil Large Speculators Raise Net Bullish Positions For 2nd Week
Zachary Storella | May 31, 2015 01:30AM ET
Weekly CFTC Commitment of Traders Crude Oil Report
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WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators raised their overall bullish bets in WTI 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, totaled a net position of +347,991 contracts in the data reported for May 26th. This was a change of +4,560 contracts from the previous week’s total of +343,431 net contracts for the data reported through May 19th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures decreased by -2,614 contracts but were more than offset by oil traders reducing their short positions by -7,174 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +4,560 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 19th to Tuesday May 26th, the WTI crude oil price inched up from $57.99 to $58.03 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, edged lower for the week from $64.02 to $63.72 per barrel from Tuesday May 19th to Tuesday May 26th, according to price data from investing.com.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) cut back on their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -346,218 contracts through May 26th. This is a weekly change of +4,322 contracts from the total net of -350,540 contracts on May 19th.
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*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).
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