Crude Oil Speculators Net Bullish Positions Rose Sharply
Zachary Storella | Apr 26, 2015 02:21AM ET
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WTI Crude Oil: Futures market traders and large oil speculators continued to push their overall bullish bets sharply in WTI crude oil futures last week for a fourth consecutive week and to a new highest level since August, 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 +323,092 contracts in the data reported for April 21st. This was a change of +40,932 contracts from the previous week’s total of +282,160 net contracts for the data reported through April 14th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures fell by -8,632 contracts and combined with the short positions that declined by -49,564 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +40,932 contracts.
The speculative positions of WTI crude oil are now at the highest level since August 19th when total positions equaled +323,473 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 14th to Tuesday April 21st, the WTI crude oil price rose from $53.29 to $56.61 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices also increased for the week from $59.81 to $62.08 per barrel from Tuesday April 14th to Tuesday April 21st, according to price data from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Specs Long | Chg Specs Long | Specs Short | Chg Specs Short | Pct OI Specs Long | Pct OI Specs Short | Net Specs | Weekly Chg |
| 03/17/2015 | 1760721 | 516956 | 21814 | 273468 | 38985 | 29.4 | 15.5 | 243488 | -17171 |
| 03/24/2015 | 1748067 | 513586 | -3370 | 306699 | 33231 | 29.4 | 17.5 | 206887 | -36601 |
| 03/31/2015 | 1740134 | 516028 | 2442 | 289333 | -17366 | 29.7 | 16.6 | 226695 | 19808 |
| 04/07/2015 | 1743733 | 520929 | 4901 | 268886 | -20447 | 29.9 | 15.4 | 252043 | 25348 |
| 04/14/2015 | 1774773 | 527985 | 7056 | 245825 | -23061 | 29.7 | 13.9 | 282160 | 30117 |
| 04/21/2015 | 1723025 | 519353 | -8632 | 196261 | -49564 | 30.1 | 11.4 | 323092 | 40932 |
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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). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).
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