CFTC COT data shows speculator’s bets jumped last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators sharply boosted their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a second week in a row and to the highest standing in about five months, 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 +362,976 contracts in the data reported for October 4th. This was a change of +71,330 contracts from the previous week’s total of +291,646 net contracts for the data reported through September 27th.
The jump in bullish bets follows an informal agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to a cap of their production of crude oil. Speculators pushed their bets to the highest level since May 17th when net positions equaled 368,769 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) increased their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -356,221 contracts through October 4th. This is a weekly change of -59,354 contracts from the total net amount of -296,867 contracts on September 27th.
United States Oil (NYSE:USO):
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday September 27th to Tuesday October 4th, the USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, rose from $10.15 to $11.09, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund.
*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).