By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
Oil Speculators overall long positions fall under +300,000 contracts for 1st time since November 2013
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large speculators once again decreased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week for the eleventh straight 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, traded by large speculators, traders and hedge funds, decreased to a total net position of +299,982 contracts in the data reported for September 9th. This was a change of -2,582 contracts from the previous week’s total of +302,564 net contracts for the data reported through September 2nd.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures increased by a total of 5,522 contracts while the short positions advanced by 8,104 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -2,582 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net positions dropped below the +300,000 level for the first time since November 5th 2013 when overall net positions equaled +299,514 contracts.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday September 2nd to Tuesday September 9th, the crude oil price dipped slightly from $92.88 to $92.75 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also fell lower from $100.34 to $99.16 per barrel from Tuesday September 2nd to Tuesday September 9th, according to price data from investing.com.
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Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price | Brent Price |
| 08/05/2014 | 1587187 | 450544 | 103340 | 347204 | -17535 | 97.38 | 104.61 |
| 08/12/2014 | 1583609 | 433331 | 109265 | 324066 | -23138 | 97.37 | 103.89 |
| 08/19/2014 | 1542337 | 429288 | 105815 | 323473 | -593 | 92.86 | 101.56 |
| 08/26/2014 | 1550253 | 424250 | 106523 | 317727 | -5746 | 93.86 | 102.5 |
| 09/02/2014 | 1559353 | 421058 | 118494 | 302564 | -15163 | 92.88 | 100.34 |
| 09/09/2014 | 1553516 | 426580 | 126598 | 299982 | -2582 | 92.75 | 99.16 |
*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
