Oil Speculators Drop Net Bullish Positions For 5th Out Of Last 6 Weeks
Zachary Storella | Jul 04, 2016 01:53AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s pushed oil bets lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators reduced their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week and pushed bullish positions lower for the fifth out of the last six 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, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +304,239 contracts in the data reported for June 28th. This was a change of -14,356 contracts from the previous week’s total of +318,595 net contracts for the data reported through June 21st.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures fell to 510,395 total contracts from 515,227 contracts the previous week while the non-commercial short positions increased to 206,156 contracts from 196,632 contracts the previous week.
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) decreased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -307,784 contracts through June 28th. This is a weekly change of +9,797 contracts from the total net amount of -317,581 contracts on June 21st.
United States Oil (NYSE:USO) Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday June 21st to Tuesday June 28th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, slid from $11.89 to $11.47, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
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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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