Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculators push oil bets lower for a 5th week
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply reduced their bullish bets in WTI crude oil futures last week as positions dropped for a fifth consecutive week, 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 +206,887 contracts in the data reported for March 24th. This was a change of -36,601 contracts from the previous week’s total of +243,488 net contracts for the data reported through March 17th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures declined by -3,370 contracts while the short positions rose by 33,231 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -36,601 contracts.
The decrease in the overall net speculator positions brings the WTI crude oil bets to the lowest level since 2012.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday March 17th to Tuesday March 24th, the WTI crude oil price saw a rise from $45.19 to $47.51 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also edged higher from $53.51 to $55.11 per barrel from Tuesday March 17th to Tuesday March 24th, 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).