WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large energy speculators continued to increase their bullish net positions in the WTI Crude Oil futures markets 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 WTI Crude Oil futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 424,597 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, November 12th. This was a weekly change of 18,457 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of 406,140 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) sliding by -25,944 contracts (to a weekly total of 539,082 contracts) while the gross bearish position (shorts) dropped by a larger amount of -44,401 contracts for the week (to a total of 114,485 contracts).
WTI crude oil speculators have now raised their bullish bets for a fifth consecutive week and by a total of +69,512 contracts over that time-frame. The current bullish standing is now at the highest level since September 17th and has risen above the 2019 average of +399,218 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -424,751 contracts on the week. This was a weekly loss of -18,805 contracts from the total net of -405,946 contracts reported the previous week.
WTI Crude Oil Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the WTI Crude Oil Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $56.80 which was a decline of $-0.43 from the previous close of $57.23, according to unofficial market data.