By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators sharply increased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week and boosted long positions for a 2nd week, 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, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, advanced to a total net position of +410,208 contracts in the data reported for May 20th. This was a change of +22,469 contracts from the previous week’s total of +387,739 net contracts for the data reported through May 13th.
Last week’s sharp rise in bullish bets was the largest weekly increase since February 18th and brings non-commercial net positions to the highest level since March 4th.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday May 13th to Tuesday May 20th, the crude oil price rose from $101.86 to $102.33 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed an increase from $108.67 to $109.81 per barrel from Tuesday May 13th to Tuesday May 20th, according to prices from investing.com.
Free Reports:
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price |
| 04/15/2014 | 1674276 | 523490 | 113939 | 409551 | 9764 | 103.78 |
| 04/22/2014 | 1619737 | 517023 | 106898 | 410125 | 574 | 101.92 |
| 04/29/2014 | 1651521 | 522018 | 119691 | 402327 | -7798 | 100.58 |
| 05/06/2014 | 1638412 | 492901 | 109808 | 383093 | -19234 | 99.81 |
| 05/13/2014 | 1627403 | 495080 | 107341 | 387739 | 4646 | 101.86 |
| 05/20/2014 | 1607523 | 507592 | 97384 | 410208 | 22469 | 102.33 |
*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). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).
Article by CountingPips.com – Forex Trading News
