WTI Crude Oil Speculators Pare Net Bullish Positions
Zachary Storella | Dec 06, 2015 12:51AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s pushed oil bets lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators reduced their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a 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 +208,478 contracts in the data reported for December 1st. This was a change of -3,547 contracts from the previous week’s total of +212,025 net contracts for the data reported through November 24th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by 3,309 contracts but were more than offset by a larger rise in the short positions by 6,856 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -3,547 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) edged their existing bearish positions lower to a net total position of -212,872 contracts through December 1st. This is a weekly change of +601 contracts from the total net amount of -213,473 contracts on November 24th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday November 24th to Tuesday December 1st, the N:USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, dipped from $13.32 to $12.95, according to ETF data for the 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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