S&P500 Mini Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large stock market speculators lowered their bullish net positions in the S&P500 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&P500 Mini futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 185,244 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday May 22nd. This was a weekly decrease of -13,561 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 198,805 net contracts.
Speculative positions remain in a very bullish level although positions have declined for two out of the past three weeks and for six out of the past ten weeks.
Right now, this market is being supported by the speculators as well as strongly by the small traders who have increased their bullish bets for ten straight weeks to a total of +346,174 net contracts. On the bearish side, commercials have upped their bearish position to the highest level (-531,418 contracts) in two decades.
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 -531,418 contracts on the week. This was a weekly decline of -20,045 contracts from the total net of -511,373 contracts reported the previous week.
The commercials bearish positions have gained for eight out of the past nine weeks and are now at the highest bearish standing since at least 1997.
SPY (NYSE:SPY) ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the SPY ETF, which tracks the price of S&P500 Index, closed at approximately $272.61 which was an uptick of $1.51 from the previous close of $271.1, according to unofficial market data.