According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended November 13, NET LENGTH for crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures all declined sharply. Selloff in oil prices exacerbated during the reporting week, with the front-month WTI crude oil contract slumping -10.48% while the Brent contract plummeted -9.23%. Speculative long positions of crude oil futures gained +6 883 contracts, while shorts jumped +29 468 contracts, resulting in a fall in NET LENGTH, by -22 585 contracts, to 381 198 contracts. For refined oil products, Net LENGTH for heating oil futures dived plunged -11 753 contracts to 17 213, while that for gasoline was down -6 746 contracts to 79 564. During the reporting week, decline in refined oil products was significant. The front-month RBOB gasoline contract declined -5.75% while the heating oil contract was down -8.93%. NET LENGTH for natural gas futures rose +16 926 contracts, to 22 346 contracts for the week. The front-month Nymex contract soared +15.36% for the week.
On the precious metal complex, both gold and silver futures recorded NET SHORT. Speculative long positions for the former slipped -725 contracts, while shorts jumped +27 548, resulting in a NET SHORT of 9 247 contracts. The benchmark Comex contract climbed +0.5% during the week in concern. For the latter, speculative long positions added +1 501 contracts while shorts rose +16 176, raising NET SHORT, by -14 675 contracts, to 17 145 contracts. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures dropped -1 933 contracts to 21 991 while that for palladium added +131 contracts to 13 380.
