VIX Speculators Trimmed Bearish Bets For 1st Time In 3 Weeks
Zachary Storella | May 24, 2020 02:51AM ET
Large volatility speculators cut back on 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 -35,032 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday May 19th. This was a weekly change of 4,694 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of -39,726 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) gaining by 7,337 contracts (to a weekly total of 54,648 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) advanced by a lesser amount of 2,643 contracts for the week (to a total of 89,680 contracts).
Speculative bearish positions had risen in the previous two weeks and added a total of -20,755 contracts to the bearish standing in that time-frame before this week’s small turnaround. Despite this week’s pullback, VIX speculator positions remain above the -35,000 net contract level for a second straight week for the first time since March 17th. Overall, the VIX spec position has now been in an overall bearish level for 71 weeks, dating back to January 9th of 2019.
h3 VIX Commercial Positions:/h3The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 41,545 contracts on the week. This was a weekly fall of -2,728 contracts from the total net of 44,273 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the VIX Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $32.07 which was a decrease of $-0.85 from the previous close of $32.92, according to unofficial market data.
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