WTI Crude Oil Speculators Decreased Bullish Bets For 1st Time In 6 Weeks
Zachary Storella | Feb 18, 2018 04:38AM ET
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large energy speculators reduced their bullish net positions from a record high level in the WTI Crude Oil 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 WTI Crude Oil futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 712,261 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday February 13th. This was a weekly decline of -26,836 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 739,097 net contracts.
Speculative positions had risen and made a new all-time high in each of the previous five weeks with last week’s +739,097 contracts marking the latest record level. The overall net bullish position has now remained over the +700,000 contract level for five straight weeks.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -735,913 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 25,511 contracts from the total net of -761,424 contracts reported the previous week.
United States Oil (NYSE:USO):
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $11.87 which was a shortfall of $-0.83 from the previous close of $12.7, according to unofficial market data.
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