Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s raised oil bets higher last week
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators increased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a second consecutive 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, totaled a net position of +264,992 contracts in the data reported for October 13th. This was a change of +6,731 contracts from the previous week’s total of +258,261 net contracts for the data reported through October 6th.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures declined by -3,360 contracts but were more than offset by a bigger fall in the short positions that dropped by -10,091 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of +6,731 contracts.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
In the commercial positions for oil on the week, the commercials (hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes) raised their existing bearish positions to a net total position of -274,867 contracts through October 13th. This is a weekly change of -21,654 contracts from the total net amount of -253,213 contracts on October 6th.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday October 6th to Tuesday October 13th, the N:USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, dipped from $15.74 to $15.06, according to ETF data for the USO United States Oil Fund LP ETF.
*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).
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