WTI Crude Oil Speculators Slightly Raised Their Bullish Bets Higher
Zachary Storella | Sep 20, 2020 01:14AM ET
Large energy speculators edged their bullish net positions higher 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 449,744 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, September 15th. This was a weekly uptick by 378 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 449,366 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) climbing by 11,868 contracts (to a weekly total of 649,093 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) rose by a lesser amount of 11,490 contracts for the week (to a total of 199,349 contracts).
Crude oil speculators paused paring their bets this week with a slight increase in their bullish positioning. Previously, speculators had cut their bullish bets for five straight weeks (by a total of -86,900 contracts over that period) and in six out of the previous seven weeks as well. The declines in speculative positions over the past few months has dropped the overall net position under the +500,000 net contract level for a third consecutive week. Bullish positions had previously remained above that level for twenty straight weeks, dating back to the middle of April.
h2 WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:/h2The commercial traders' position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -474,847 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 5,335 contracts from the total net of -480,182 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 $38.28 which was a rise of $1.52 from the previous close of $36.76, according to unofficial market data.
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