October 5th – By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large energy speculators sharply pulled back on their bullish net positions 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 389,319 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 1st. This was a weekly decline of -34,843 net contracts (by over 8.2 percent) from the previous week which had a total of 424,162 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) dropping by -13,664 contracts (to a weekly total of 514,829 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) increased by 21,179 contracts for the week (to a total of 125,510 contracts).
WTI crude speculators decreased their bullish bets for a third straight week and by the largest one-week amount since June 11th (when bets fell by -48,513 contracts). The decline this week brought the overall bullish level back under the +400,000 net contract level for the first time in the past four weeks. Despite the recent slide, the net position has been remarkably steady as bets have fluctuated between approximately +375,000 and +430,000 net contracts over the past fifteen weeks.
Free Reports:
Get Our Free Metatrader 4 Indicators - Put Our Free MetaTrader 4 Custom Indicators on your charts when you join our Weekly Newsletter
Get our Weekly Commitment of Traders Reports - See where the biggest traders (Hedge Funds and Commercial Hedgers) are positioned in the futures markets on a weekly basis.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -401,977 contracts on the week. This was a weekly uptick of 38,277 contracts from the total net of -440,254 contracts reported the previous week.
WTI Crude Oil Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the WTI Crude Oil Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $53.62 which was a fall of $-3.67 from the previous close of $57.29, according to unofficial market data.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the most recent Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures 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).
Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).
Article By CountingPips.com – Receive our weekly COT Reports by Email
