Data from futures exchanges for June 28 shows a sharp decline in natural gas commitments by levered funds. Specifically, net positions in natural gas declined 29.4% over the last week. As a result, gas market open interest is no longer at record levels. Notably, the reduction was led by declines in existing long positions. Money flows are leaving the market.
Similarly, the energy futures also had a large decline in open interest for New York Harbor diesel fuel (ULSD). In this case, levered funds reduced net positions 17.9%.
Meanwhile, there is a high ratio of long futures positions to short futures positions for ARA Gasoil. European Gasoil has a Long:Short ratio of 17.1.
Only WTI crude oil futures had new money inflows over the last week.
Overall, the position rank for each market is below 50, with the exception of natural gas. In conclusion, the position rankings show that fund allocations to the energy futures complex are now below the 10 year average.
Click to enlarge table
The trade commitments of levered funds are displayed below by market:
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Risk Disclosure:
The opportunity for gain and the risk of loss in trading commodity futures contracts can be substantial. You should, therefore, carefully consider whether such trading issuitable for you in light of your circumstances and financial resources.
Table Notes:
The reported data combines trade commitments for futures contracts and options. The data is limited to trade activity for professional money mangers and levered funds only.
The metrics used to track trader open interest activity include:
Code: The exchange ticker symbol for the commodity futures contract. Natural Gas has no reported code as the reported open interest data combines multiple futures and options contracts.
Long, Short, and Net Positions: The gross positions of all reported buyers (long positions), all reported sellers (short positions), and the net position of buyers and sellers.
Position Changes: Weekly changes in long, short and net positions
Trend: A plot of positions changes by week over the last 12 weeks.
Rank: The rank of the current net position versus the 10 year range. For example, a rank of 100 is the maximum position over the 10 year period. In contrast, a rank of 0 is the minimum.
Ratio: The ratio of current long positions divided by current short positions.