WTI Crude Oil Speculators Cut Back On Net Bullish Positions
Zachary Storella | Feb 14, 2016 03:13AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil:
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets fell again last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators decreased 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 +187,877 contracts in the data reported for February 9th. This was a change of -8,996 contracts from the previous week’s total of +196,873 net contracts for the data reported through February 2nd.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures fell by -1,020 contracts and combined with the short positions that rose by 7,976 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -8,996 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) trimmed their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -200,886 contracts through February 9th. This is a weekly change of +4,900 contracts from the total net amount of -205,786 contracts on February 2nd.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday February 2nd to Tuesday February 9th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, declined from $8.57 to $8.18 (top chart), according to ETF data for the N:USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
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*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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