Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets were lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators reduced their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week following a big increase in bullish bets the previous 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 +348,142 contracts in the data reported for May 24th. This was a change of -20,627 contracts from the previous week’s total of +368,769 net contracts for the data reported through May 17th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures dropped by -26,366 contracts and overshadowed a smaller decline in the short positions that fell by -5,739 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -20,627 contracts.
Speculator’s bullish bets have now fallen three out of the last four weeks and this week’s decline follows a huge rise in net positions on May 17th that rose by +76,809 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) decreased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -341,742 contracts through May 24th. This is a weekly change of +9,687 contracts from the total net amount of -351,429 contracts on May 17th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 17th to Tuesday May 24th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, slid from $11.92 to $11.82, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) LP ETF.
*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).