Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CFTC COT data shows speculators cut oil bets for a 4th week
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large oil speculators cut back on their bullish bets in WTI crude oil futures last week for a fourth consecutive week and dropped overall bullish positions to the lowest level since 2013, 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 +243,488 contracts in the data reported for March 17th. This was a change of -17,171 contracts from the previous week’s total of +260,659 net contracts for the data reported through March 10th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures actually rose by 21,814 contracts but were more than offset by the short positions which increased by 38,985 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -17,171 contracts.
The decrease in the overall net speculator positions brings the WTI crude oil bets to the lowest level since May 14th 2013 when bullish positions equaled +232,590 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday March 10th to Tuesday March 17th, the WTI crude oil price saw a decline from $48.29 to $45.19 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also fell from $56.39 to $53.51 per barrel from Tuesday March 10th to Tuesday March 17th, according to price data from investing.com.
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).