Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s dropped oil bets lower 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 straight week and net bullish positions have fallen to the lowest level since September 1st, 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 +228,555 contracts in the data reported for November 17th. This was a change of -9,767 contracts from the previous week’s total of +238,322 net contracts for the data reported through November 10th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures declined by -4,846 contracts and combined with the short positions that rose by 4,921 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -9,767 contracts.
Net bullish positions now stand at the lowest level since September 1st when positions equaled +220,342 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 -236,821 contracts through November 17th. This is a weekly change of +9,251 contracts from the total net amount of -246,072 contracts on November 10th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday November 10th to Tuesday November 17th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, decreased from $14.09 to $13.01, according to ETF data for the N: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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