By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators sharply raised their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week to the highest level all year as recent violence and mounting political uncertainty in Iraq helped to push oil prices higher, 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, increased to a total net position of +457,156 contracts in the data reported for June 17th. This was a change of +39,145 contracts from the previous week’s total of +418,011 net contracts for the data reported through June 10th.
For the week, long positions rose by 24,185 contracts while short positions fell by 14,960 contracts to show an overall net change of +39,145 contracts which represents the largest one week rise all year.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday June 10th to Tuesday June 17th, the crude oil price advanced from $104.35 to $105.87 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed a rise from $108.86 to $113.45 per barrel from Tuesday June 10th to Tuesday June 17th, according to prices from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
Free Reports:
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price |
| 05/13/2014 | 1627403 | 495080 | 107341 | 387739 | 4646 | 101.86 |
| 05/20/2014 | 1607523 | 507592 | 97384 | 410208 | 22469 | 102.33 |
| 05/27/2014 | 1635600 | 526135 | 102999 | 423136 | 12928 | 104.11 |
| 06/03/2014 | 1664043 | 520556 | 103971 | 416585 | -6551 | 102.66 |
| 06/10/2014 | 1676336 | 520876 | 102865 | 418011 | 1426 | 104.35 |
| 06/17/2014 | 1721703 | 545061 | 87905 | 457156 | 39145 | 105.87 |
*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
