CFTC COT data shows speculator’s boosted oil bets higher last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply increased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures for a third consecutive week and to the highest level since 2014, 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 +413,650 contracts in the data reported for October 11th. This was a change of +50,674 contracts from the previous week’s total of +362,976 net contracts for the data reported through October 4th.
The WTI speculative bullish level is now at its highest standing since July 8th 2014 when bullish positions totaled +424,887 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) raised their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -409,331 contracts through October 11th. This is a weekly change of -53,110 contracts from the total net amount of -356,221 contracts on October 4th.
United States Oil (NYSE:USO):
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday October 4th to Tuesday October 11th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, increased from $11.09 to $11.58, according to ETF data for the USO Fund.
*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).