S&P 500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators once again increased their bearish net positions in the S&P 500 Mini futures markets in February, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.
This latest COT data is from the middle of February due to the government shutdown which suspended the releases for approximately a month. The CFTC is releasing data on Tuesdays and Fridays going forward until the data is back up to date.
The non-commercial futures contracts of S&P500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of -130,834 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday, February 19th. This was a weekly lowering of -11,329 net contracts from the previous week which had a total of -119,505 net contracts.
The week’s net position was the result of the gross bullish position (longs) lowering by -8,203 contracts to a weekly total of 322,912 contracts compared to the gross bearish position (shorts) which saw a gain by 3,126 contracts for the week to a total of 453,746 contracts.
The SP500-Mini speculator positions pushed further into bearish territory to the lowest level since December 6th of 2016 through February 19th. Overall, the spec net position decreased for nine straight weeks through the latest data and has now been in bearish territory for five straight weeks.
S&P500 Mini Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of 25,967 contracts on the week. This was a weekly gain of 3,552 contracts from the total net of 22,415 contracts reported the previous week.
S&P500 Mini Futures:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the S&P500 Mini Futures (Front Month) closed at approximately $2778.75 which was an uptick of $34.00 from the previous close of $2744.75, according to unofficial market data.