By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report
CRUDE OIL: Futures market traders and large speculators slightly increased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week after bets had fallen for sixteen straight weeks, 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, edged up to a total net position of +280,101 contracts in the data reported for October 21st. This was a change of +1,321 contracts from the previous week’s total of +278,780 net contracts for the data reported through October 14th.
For the week, standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures decreased by a total of -11,276 contracts but were offset by a decrease in the short positions that fell by -12,597 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +1,321 contracts.
The non-commercial trader’s net position had dropped every week since June 24th 2014 to the lowest level in over a year before last week’s slight uptick.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday October 14th to Tuesday October 21st, the WTI crude oil price edged higher from $81.84 to $82.49 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also rose from $85.41 to $86.22 per barrel from Tuesday October 14th to Tuesday October 21st, according to price data 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 | Brent Price |
| 09/16/2014 | 1528614 | 434417 | 137136 | 297281 | -2701 | 93.81 | 99.05 |
| 09/23/2014 | 1480629 | 423239 | 127187 | 296052 | -1229 | 91.56 | 96.85 |
| 09/30/2014 | 1485856 | 426689 | 130743 | 295946 | -106 | 91.16 | 94.67 |
| 10/07/2014 | 1503764 | 435642 | 141959 | 293683 | -2263 | 88.85 | 92.11 |
| 10/14/2014 | 1537452 | 441625 | 162845 | 278780 | -14903 | 81.84 | 85.41 |
| 10/21/2014 | 1459981 | 430349 | 150248 | 280101 | 1321 | 82.49 | 86.22 |
*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
