S&P 500 Mini Speculators Retreated Into Net Bearish Position In January
Zachary Storella | Feb 17, 2019 02:16AM ET
S&P 500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators sharply dropped their bets into a bearish net position in the S&P 500 Mini futures markets in January, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
This latest COT data is from later in January due to the government shutdown which suspended the releases. The CFTC is releasing data on Tuesdays and Fridays going forward until the data is back up to date.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P 500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -4,581 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday January 22nd. This was a weekly decline of -68,783 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 64,202 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) falling by -14,306 contracts to a weekly total of 364,571 contracts compared with the gross bearish position (shorts) which saw a jump by 54,477 contracts for the week to a total of 369,152 contracts.
The net speculative position declined for a fifth straight week and by a total of -214,847 contracts over that period. This fall into a bearish net position marked the first time in a bearish standing since December of 2016.
S&P 500 Mini Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -85,550 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 52,841 contracts from the total net of -138,391 contracts reported the previous week.
S&P 500 Mini Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P 500 Mini Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $2632.00 which was an increase of $26.50 from the previous close of $2605.50, according to unofficial market data.
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