Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets rebounded last week after 5 down weeks
WTI CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators added to their overall bullish bets in WTI crude oil futures last week and stopped a five week slide in net speculator 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 +226,695 contracts in the data reported for March 31st. This was a change of +19,808 contracts from the previous week’s total of +206,887 net contracts for the data reported through March 24th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by 2,442 contracts while the short positions fell by 17,366 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +19,808 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday March 24th to Tuesday March 31st, the WTI crude oil price edged just slightly higher from $47.51 to $47.60 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, were unchanged for the week from $55.11 to $55.11 per barrel from Tuesday March 24th to Tuesday March 31st, according to price data from investing.com.
*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).