Crude Speculators Net Bullish Positions Rose To Highest Since September
Zachary Storella | Feb 22, 2015 12:14AM ET
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculators oil bets surged higher last week
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply increased their overall bullish bets in WTI crude oil futures last week after bets had edged lower for the previous three 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 +299,390 contracts in the data reported for February 17th. This was a change of +27,863 contracts from the previous week’s total of +271,527 net contracts for the data reported through February 10th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures slipped by just -248 contracts while the short positions fell sharply by -28,111 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +27,863 contracts.
The rise in the overall bullish standing positions was the highest weekly increase since June 2014 and put overall bullish bets at the highest level since September 2014.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday February 10th to Tuesday February 17th, the WTI crude oil price saw a rise from $50.02 to $54.29 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, increased from $57.49 to $62.53 per barrel from Tuesday February 10th to Tuesday February 17th, 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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