According to the CFTC Commitments of Traders report for the week ended September 1, NET LENGTH for crude oil futures declined further, by -9 784 contracts to, 490 915 for the week. Speculative long position fell -6 429 contracts, but shorts rose +3 355 contracts. NET Length is expected to shrink further with selloff of crude oil oil over the past week. Losing over -6% last week, the front-month WTI and Brent contracts had their worst decline since mid-June. For refined oil products, NET LENGTH for gasoline increased +1 349 contracts to 72 423, while NET LENGTH for heating oil futures declined -4 765 contracts to 10 540. NET LENGTH in Natural Gas futures more than doubled, jumping +18 048 contracts, to 31 686 for the week.
Gold futures’ NET LENGTH soared +9 758 contracts to 230 796. Speculative long positions gained +4 559 contracts while shorts fell -5 199. Silver futures’ NET LENGTH added +2 135 contracts to 33 472. For PGMs, NET LENGTH of Nymex platinum futures dropped -458 contracts to 19 455 while that for palladium was added +223 contracts to 2 778.