WTI Crude Oil COT Speculators Cut Net Bullish Positions Sharply
Zachary Storella | Jul 19, 2015 01:44AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s pushed oil bets lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply cut their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a second consecutive week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial contracts of crude oil futures, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +264,387 contracts in the data reported for July 14th. This was a change of -31,773 contracts from the previous week’s total of +296,160 net contracts for the data reported through July 7th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures declined by -17,828 contracts and combined with the short positions that rose by 13,945 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -31,773 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) decreased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -256,902 contracts through July 14th. This is a weekly change of +33,974 contracts from the total net amount of -290,876 contracts on July 7th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday July 7th to Tuesday July 14th, the USO United States Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, dipped from $17.76 to $17.72, according to ETF data of the TO:USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).
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