WTI Crude Oil Speculators Raise Net Bullish Positions For 2nd Week

 | Sep 07, 2015 01:32AM ET

Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil

CFTC COT data shows speculator’s edged oil bets higher last week to +220,342 contracts

WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:

Futures market traders and large oil speculators increased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a second straight 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 +220,342 contracts in the data reported for September 1st. This was a change of +4,779 contracts from the previous week’s total of +215,563 net contracts for the data reported through August 25th.

For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures advanced by 13,017 contracts and outnumbered the short positions that rose by 8,238 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +4,779 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) upped their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -219,070 contracts through September 1st. This is a weekly change of -2,221 contracts from the total net amount of -216,849 contracts on August 25th.

USO Crude Oil ETF:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday August 25th to Tuesday September 1st, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, rose from 12.73 to 14.81, according to ETF data for the NYSE:USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.