S&P 500 Mini Speculators Sharply Pared Bearish Bets
Zachary Storella | Mar 17, 2019 02:00AM ET
S&P 500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators reduced their bearish net positions in the S&P 500 Mini futures markets for the second time in three weeks, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P 500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -66,898 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, March 12th. This was a weekly change of 36,489 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of -103,387 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) ascending by 10,927 contracts to a weekly total of 339,702 contracts combined with the gross bearish position (shorts) which saw a fall by -25,562 contracts for the week to a total of 406,600 contracts.
The speculator position has risen rather sharply for two out of the past three weeks following a nine-week streak of weakening speculator bets from December to February. The spec standing dropped into bearish territory in late January after the markets took a thrashing in December, reaching a recent high of -130,834 contracts on February 19th.
Since that high point, bearish bets have cooled off and now sit at their lowest level since January 22nd. Overall, spec positions have been in a bearish state for eight consecutive weeks.
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 64,069 contracts on the week. This was a weekly fall of -39,536 contracts from the total net of 103,605 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 $2797.25 which was a gain of $5.75 from the previous close of $2791.50, according to unofficial market data.
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