Weekly Large Trader COT Report: WTI Crude Oil
CFTC COT data shows speculator’s oil bets fall
WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Positions:
Futures market traders and large oil speculators decreased their overall bullish bets in WTI oil futures last week for a fifth consecutive week as crude prices continue to slide amid oversupply and less demand, 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 +197,874 contracts in the data reported for December 8th. This was a change of -10,604 contracts from the previous week’s total of +208,478 net contracts for the data reported through December 1st.
For the week, the standing non-commercial long positions in oil futures advanced by 4,506 contracts but were overtaken by the short positions that gained by 15,110 contracts to total the overall weekly net change of -10,604 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) reduced their existing bearish positions for a fourth week to a net total position of -204,823 contracts through December 8th. This is a weekly change of +8,049 contracts from the total net amount of -212,872 contracts on December 1st.
USO Crude Oil ETF:
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday December 1st to Tuesday December 8th, the N:USO Oil ETF, which tracks the WTI crude oil price, declined from $12.95 to $11.68, 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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