Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculators edged oil bets lower last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators slightly trimmed their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a second straight week of declining bullish bets, 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 +347,002 contracts in the data reported for May 31st. This was a change of -1,140 contracts from the previous week’s total of +348,142 net contracts for the data reported through May 24th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures declined by -5,569 contracts and fell just a little more than the short positions that slid by -4,429 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -1,140 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) slightly trimmed their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -339,362 contracts through May 31st. This is a weekly change of +2,380 contracts from the total net amount of -341,742 contracts on May 24th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 24th to Tuesday May 31st, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, edged higher from $11.82 to $11.87, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund (NYSE:USO) LP ETF.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Positions
*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).