Crude Oil Speculators Net Bullish Positions Gained Sharply For 3rd Week
Zachary Storella | Apr 19, 2015 01:19AM ET
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets rose strongly for 3rd week
WTI CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators boosted their overall bullish bets sharply in WTI crude oil futures last week for a third consecutive week and to the highest level since February, 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 +282,160 contracts in the data reported for April 14th. This was a change of +30,117 contracts from the previous week’s total of +252,043 net contracts for the data reported through April 7th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by 7,056 contracts and combined with the short positions that dropped by -23,061 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +30,117 contracts.
The speculative positions of WTI crude oil are now at the highest level since February 17th when total positions equaled +299,390 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 7th to Tuesday April 14th, the WTI crude oil price was virtually unchanged and edged down from $53.98 to $53.29 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices also did not move much for the week from $59.10 to $59.81 per barrel from Tuesday April 7th to Tuesday April 14th, according to price data from investing.com.
*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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