VIX Speculators Raise Bearish Bets For 4th Time In 5 Weeks
Zachary Storella | Jun 28, 2020 01:41AM ET
Large volatility speculators continued to increase their bearish net positions in the VIX futures markets 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 -63,126 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday June 23rd. This was a weekly change of -11,313 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of -51,813 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) lowering by -3,114 contracts (to a weekly total of 45,918 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by 8,199 contracts for the week (to a total of 109,044 contracts).
VIX speculators added to their bearish positions this week after a retreat last week by 15,640 contracts. Speculators have now pushed their bearish bets higher in four out of the past five weeks and a total of almost -30,000 contracts have been added to the bearish standing over these past five weeks. The overall bearish position for speculators has now been above the -50,000 net contract level for four straight weeks which is the first time this has happened since the middle of March.
h2 VIX Commercial Positions:/h2The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 68,289 contracts on the week. This was a weekly advance of 11,690 contracts from the total net of 56,599 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the VIX Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $32.0 which was a decrease of $-1.18 from the previous close of $33.18, according to unofficial market data.
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