Crude Oil Speculators decreased bullish positions for 1st time in 4 weeks

By CountingPips.com – Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Crude Oil Report

Oil Speculators overall long positions dropped from highest level of the year

CRUDE OIL: Large futures market traders and speculators decreased their overall bullish bets in crude oil futures last week after three straight weeks of rises had pushed bullish bets to the highest level of the year, 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, primarily traded by large speculators and hedge funds, declined to a total net position of +445,840 contracts in the data reported for July 1st. This was a change of -13,129 contracts from the previous week’s total of +458,969 net contracts for the data reported through June 24th.

For the week, standing long positions fell by 12,304 contracts while short positions rose by 825 contracts to show an overall weekly net change of -13,129 contracts.

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday June 24th to Tuesday July 1st, the crude oil price dipped from $106.03 to $105.34 per barrel, according to Nymex futures price data from investing.com. Brent crude prices, meanwhile, also showed a decline from $114.46 to $112.29 per barrel from Tuesday June 24th to Tuesday July 1st, according to prices from investing.com.

Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Non-Commercial Positions

*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). Find CFTC criteria here: (http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/ExplanatoryNotes/index.htm).

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex Trading News