Portfolio managers have further increased their long positions in the most traded oil contracts, with bullish bets focused almost entirely on the US benchmark WTI Crude, wrote John Kemp, Reuters reporter, in an analysis of the latest data. change.
In the week to February 9, hedge funds and other money managers bought the equivalent of 33 million barrels in the six futures and oil options contracts. Purchases were mostly focused on WTI Crude, where the long position rose by the equivalent of 30 million barrels in the week to February 9, suggesting that hedge funds expected US oil prices to rise as an explosion The Arctic was expected to expand as far as Texas, says Kemp.
Long positions in oil contracts have now risen for 14 consecutive weeks, the longest and largest increase in bullish oil bets since early 2019, according to Kemp.
Expectations of higher WTI crude oil prices materialized this week, and WTI crude oil prices rose to more than $ 60 a barrel for the first time in more than 13 months. The last time WTI Crude traded above $ 60 was in early January 2020, before the pandemic began to worry its traders and fund managers.
In the week leading up to February 9, position extremes above or near one-year highs were seen on several commodities, from crude oil and copper and maize products, Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said on Monday. commenting on the commitments of the Merchants’ report.
The combined long net position in Brent and WTI – the difference between bullish and rising bets – has risen to a 28-month high of 727,500 lots, the report said.
This is still 33% below the record of 1.1 million lots in March 2018, says Hansen of Saxo Bank.
“While short-term momentum indicators began to call for strengthening last week, short-term rates remain low, an indication that speculative length has more room to rise before the transaction begins to look crowded,” he added. .
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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