WTI Crude Oil Speculators Trim Net Bullish Positions Last Week
Zachary Storella | Feb 07, 2016 02:28AM ET
Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s bullish oil bets slid last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators reduced their net bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week following two weeks of rising bullish positions, 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 +196,873 contracts in the data reported for February 2nd. This was a change of -8,837 contracts from the previous week’s total of +205,710 net contracts for the data reported through January 26th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures advanced by 22,110 contracts but were overtaken by a rise in the short positions of 30,947 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -8,837 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) trimmed their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -205,786 contracts through February 2nd. This is a weekly change of +3,264 contracts from the total net amount of -209,050 contracts on January 26th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday January 26th to Tuesday February 2nd, the N:USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, edged lower from $8.97 to $8.57, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
Last week, speculators decreased bullish positions while commercials trimmed bearish bets amid rising open interest
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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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