WTI Crude Oil Speculators Drop Net Bullish Positions For 4th Week
Zachary Storella | Aug 02, 2015 01:12AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s decreased oil bets again last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators cut their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for the fourth 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 +243,419 contracts in the data reported for July 21st. This was a change of -10,264 contracts from the previous week’s total of +253,683 net contracts for the data reported through July 28th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by 11,645 contracts, but were overtaken by a larger increase in the short positions by 21,909 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -10,264 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) reduced their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -243,608 contracts through July 21st. This is a weekly change of +13,530 contracts from the total net amount of -257,138 contracts on July 28th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday July 21st to Tuesday July 28th, the NYSE:USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, fell from $16.91 to $15.85, according to ETF data of the USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Change OI | Net Commercial Positions | Weekly Com Changes | Net Large Specs Positions | Weekly Spec Changes |
| 20150623 | 1650025 | -1988 | -334959 | -4073 | 327433 | 300 |
| 20150630 | 1670091 | 20066 | -331671 | 3288 | 328179 | 746 |
| 20150707 | 1691891 | 21800 | -290876 | 40795 | 296160 | -32019 |
| 20150714 | 1733695 | 41804 | -256902 | 33974 | 264387 | -31773 |
| 20150721 | 1668737 | -64958 | -257138 | -236 | 253683 | -10704 |
| 20150728 | 1694436 | 25699 | -243608 | 13530 | 243419 | -10264 |
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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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