WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large oil speculators reduced their bullish net positions in the Crude Oil WTI 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 444,316 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday October 3rd. This was a weekly decline of -9,792 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 454,108 net contracts.
Speculative bets, despite this week’s pull back, remain well above the +400,000 net contract level for a third consecutive week.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -452,216 contracts on the week. This was a weekly increase of 7,109 contracts from the total net of -459,325 contracts reported the previous week.
USO (NYSE:USO):
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $10.18 which was a decline of $-0.31 from the previous close of $10.49, according to unofficial market data.