S&P 500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators cut back on their bullish net positions in the S&P 500 Mini futures markets this 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&P 500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 210,964 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday April 24th. This was a weekly reduction of -1,345 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 212,309 net contracts.
Speculative positions have now declined for three out of the past four weeks. The speculative position remains in a very bullish standing above the +200,000 net position level for a fifth straight week which is the first time this has happened since a five week stretch in March and April of 2013.
S&P 500 Mini Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -477,361 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decrease of -28,020 contracts from the total net of -449,341 contracts reported the previous week.
SPY (NYSE:SPY) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the SPY ETF, which tracks the price of S&P 500 Index, closed at approximately $262.98 which was a drop of $-7.21 from the previous close of $270.19, according to unofficial market data.