WTI Crude Oil Non-Commercial Speculator Positions:
Large speculators increased their bullish bets in the WTI Crude Oil futures markets to a new record high 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 WTI Crude Oil futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 707,787 contracts in the data reported through Tuesday January 16th. This was a weekly gain of 50,197 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 657,590 net contracts.
Speculator bullish bets have made several record highs over the last two months and this week the speculative position broke through the +700,000 net contract barrier for the first time. Spec positions have now gained for seven out of the last ten weeks and bullish bets have jumped by +83,574 contracts in just the past two weeks.
WTI Crude Oil Commercial Positions:
The commercial traders position, hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -731,714 contracts on the week. This was a weekly loss of -57,616 contracts from the total net of -674,098 contracts reported the previous week.
USO (NYSE:USO):
Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the USO Crude Oil ETF, which tracks the price of WTI crude oil, closed at approximately $12.76 which was a gain of $0.19 from the previous close of $12.57, according to unofficial market data.