VIX Speculators Push Bearish Bets To Highest Since November 2017
Zachary Storella | Aug 19, 2018 01:44AM ET
VIX Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large volatility speculators continued to boost their bearish net positions in the VIX futures markets again this week, 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 VIX futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -131,461 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday August 14th. This was a weekly decrease of -17,672 contracts from the previous week which had a total of -113,789 net contracts.
The speculative position has seen bearish bets rise for six straight weeks and by a total of -98,242 contracts over that time-frame. The overall bearish standing is now at the highest level since November 7th of 2017 when the net position stood at -153,309 contracts.
VIX Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 136,123 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 15,738 contracts from the total net of 120,385 contracts reported the previous week.
VIX:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the VIX, which tracks the volatility of the S&P 500, closed at approximately $13.31 which was an uptick of $2.38 from the previous close of $10.93, according to unofficial market data.
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