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 113,331 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday February 20th. This was a weekly lowering of -65,669 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 179,000 net contracts.
Speculative positions have now declined sharply for two straight weeks and by a total of -172,883 contracts following the large jump in bullish positions on February 6th. Despite the two weekly declines, the overall bullish level remains above the +100,000 contract level for a sixth straight week.
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 -167,811 contracts on the week. This was a weekly rise of 113,512 contracts from the total net of -281,323 contracts reported the previous week.
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 $271.4 which was a gain of $5.4 from the previous close of $266.0, according to unofficial market data.