WTI Crude Oil Speculators Edge Bullish Bets Higher For 3rd Time In 4 Weeks
Zachary Storella | Aug 09, 2020 12:50AM ET
Large energy speculators increased their bullish net positions 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 536,266 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, August 4th. This was a weekly rise of 3,697 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 532,569 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) advancing by 16,930 contracts (to a weekly total of 693,752 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by a lesser amount of 13,233 contracts for the week (to a total of 157,486 contracts).
Crude oil speculators slightly boosted their bullish bets this week following a strong down week last week. Speculators have now pushed their bullish bets higher in three out of the past four weeks. Overall, the speculative position remains strongly bullish with the net positions above the +500,000 contract level for the 17th straight week, dating back to the middle of April.
h3 WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:/h3The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -567,061 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decline of -2,604 contracts from the total net of -564,457 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the WTI Crude Oil Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $41.70 which was a gain of $0.66 from the previous close of $41.04, according to unofficial market data.
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