WTI Oil Speculators Slightly Increased Net Bullish Positions Last Week
Zachary Storella | Aug 31, 2015 01:53AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s moved oil bets higher last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators slightly added to their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week following two weeks of declining bullish bets, 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 +215,563 contracts in the data reported for August 25th. This was a change of +4,999 contracts from the previous week’s total of +210,564 net contracts for the data reported through August 18th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures edged higher by 962 contracts and combined with the short positions that fell by -4,037 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +4,999 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) slightly increased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -216,849 contracts through August 25th. This is a weekly change of -3,020 contracts from the total net amount of -213,829 contracts on August 18th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday August 18th to Tuesday August 25th, the United States Oil (NYSE:USO), which tracks the WTI crude oil price, decreased from $14.05 to $12.73, according to ETF data for 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 |
| 20150721 | 1668737 | -64958 | -257138 | -236 | 253683 | -10704 |
| 20150728 | 1694436 | 25699 | -243608 | 13530 | 243419 | -10264 |
| 20150804 | 1736523 | 42087 | -242288 | 1320 | 247093 | 3674 |
| 20150811 | 1676233 | -60290 | -232425 | 9863 | 225843 | -21250 |
| 20150818 | 1688731 | 12498 | -213829 | 18596 | 210564 | -15279 |
| 20150825 | 1677151 | -11580 | -216849 | -3020 | 215563 | 4999 |
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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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