S&P 500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators continued to raise their bullish net positions in the S&P 500 Mini futures markets for a second week this week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P 500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 210,266 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday December 18th. This was a weekly rise of 36,087 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 174,179 net contracts.
This week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position advancing by 42,111 contracts to a weekly total of 480,166 contracts compared to the gross bearish position which saw a small gain by 6,024 contracts for the week to a total of 269,900 contracts.
The latest data shows speculative bets that took place earlier in the week and does not include the selloff that happened as the week went on. The latest standing for spec positions rose above the +200,000 net contract level for the first time in three weeks.
S&P 500 Mini Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -351,789 contracts on the week. This was a weekly drop of -73,019 contracts from the total net of -278,770 contracts reported the previous week.
S&P 500 Mini Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P 500 Mini Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $2538.00. This was a decline of $-103.25 from the previous close of $2641.25, according to unofficial market data.