By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report
CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders increased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures for a third straight week and to the highest level since March 11th last 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 crude oil futures, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of +399,787 contracts in the data reported for April 8th. This was a change of +8,004 contracts for the week. The previous week had registered a total of +391,783 net contracts in the data through April 1st.
Crude oil positions are now at the highest level since March 11th when total net positions equaled +406,832 contracts.
Over the weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday April 1st to Tuesday April 8th, the crude oil price modestly rose from $99.61 to $102.33 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices advanced from $105.26 to $107.56 per barrel from Tuesday April 1st to Tuesday April 8th, also according to prices from investing.com.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions
| Date | Open Interest | Long Specs | Short Specs | Net Non-Commercials | Weekly Change | Oil Price |
| 03/04/2014 | 1687807 | 521727 | 95909 | 425818 | 9380 | 103.33 |
| 03/11/2014 | 1697240 | 511076 | 104244 | 406832 | -18986 | 100.03 |
| 03/18/2014 | 1623266 | 492620 | 108335 | 384285 | -22547 | 98.88 |
| 03/25/2014 | 1604566 | 498080 | 106906 | 391174 | 6889 | 99.19 |
| 04/01/2014 | 1644507 | 502389 | 110606 | 391783 | 609 | 99.61 |
| 04/08/2014 | 1655472 | 512035 | 112248 | 399787 | 8004 | 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).
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