S&P500 Non-Commercial Positions:
Large speculators continued to increase their bullish net positions in the S&P500 stock futures markets last week for the seventh straight week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P500 futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 12,370 contracts in the data reported through March 28th. This was a weekly gain of 2,427 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 9,943 net contracts.
Speculative positions are now at their highest level since December 13th when net bullish positions equaled +15,031 net contracts.
S&P500 Commercial Positions:
Free Reports:
Meanwhile, the commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, raised their bearish positions for a fourth week to a total net position of -24,081 contracts last week. This is a weekly change of -7,718 contracts from the total net of -16,363 contracts reported the previous week.
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 index closed at approximately 2,358.57 which was a rise of 14.55 from the previous close of 2,344.02, according to market data.
*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures 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
