WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators and traders edged their net positions in the WTI crude oil futures markets lower last week as positions have fallen for six straight weeks, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday (due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday).
The non-commercial contracts of WTI crude futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 276,320 contracts in the data reported through November 22nd. This was a weekly decline of just -6 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 276,326 net contracts.
WTI speculative positions are now at the lowest position since August 9th when total net bullish positions equaled 258,250 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -281,929 contracts last week. This is a weekly fall of -4,355 contracts from the total net of -277,574 contracts reported the previous week.
USO (NYSE:USO) Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $10.63 which was a change of $0.29 from the previous close of $10.34, according to market data from Yahoo Finance.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous 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).