Copper speculative positions rise higher in bullish territory
Non-Commercial Positions:
Copper speculators and large futures traders edged their bullish bets higher in favor of copper after net positions crossed over to the bullish side two weeks ago, 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 Comex copper futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +9,341 contracts in the data reported through May 19th. This was a weekly change of +825 contracts from the previous week’s total of +8,516 net contracts that was registered on May 12th.
The rise in the weekly net speculator positions reflects a small decline in the bullish positions by -124 contracts combined with a drop in the bearish positions by -949 contracts to register the net weekly change of +825 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 12th to Tuesday May 19th, the copper price slid from the $2.93 level to a price of $2.83, according to copper futures price data from investing.com.
Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for copper on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) sold off their overall positions for a third week to a net total position of -6,776 contracts through May 19th. This is a weekly change of -1,163 contracts from the total net of -5,613 contracts on May 12th.
*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).