Oil Speculators overall long positions saw tiny decline last week
Crude Oil: Futures market traders and large speculators very slightly edged down their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week as positions fell lower for a fourteenth straight 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, fell to a total net position of +295,946 contracts in the data reported for September 30th. This was a change of just -106 contracts from the previous week’s total of +296,052 net contracts for the data reported through September 23rd.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures rose by a total of 3,450 contracts while the short positions increased by 3,556 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -106 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net positions remains at the lowest level since July 2nd 2013 when overall net positions equaled +289,595 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday September 23rd to Tuesday September 30th, the crude oil price edged down from $91.56 to $91.16 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also fell lower from $96.85 to $94.67 per barrel from Tuesday September 23rd to Tuesday September 30th, according to price data from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price | Brent Price |
| 08/26/2014 | 1550253 | 424250 | 106523 | 317727 | -5746 | 93.86 | 102.5 |
| 09/02/2014 | 1559353 | 421058 | 118494 | 302564 | -15163 | 92.88 | 100.34 |
| 09/09/2014 | 1553516 | 426580 | 126598 | 299982 | -2582 | 92.75 | 99.16 |
| 09/16/2014 | 1528614 | 434417 | 137136 | 297281 | -2701 | 93.81 | 99.05 |
| 09/23/2014 | 1480629 | 423239 | 127187 | 296052 | -1229 | 91.56 | 96.85 |
| 09/30/2014 | 1485856 | 426689 | 130743 | 295946 | -106 | 91.16 | 94.67 |
*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). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).